The House on Wednesday approved a resolution amending a sweeping housing bill passed earlier by the Senate, sending the legislation back to the upper chamber where its prospects remain uncertain.
The measure cleared the lower chamber with a bipartisan 396-13 vote, with all dissenting votes coming from Republicans. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) used a fast-track procedure that bypassed a standard procedural hurdle but required a two-thirds majority for passage.
The revised package, known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, modifies a Senate version that passed 89-10 earlier this year. It retains the core goals of boosting housing supply through incentives for new construction, converting abandoned buildings into housing, and funding modernization of existing homes. However, it removes a Senate-backed provision that would have forced large institutional investors in build-to-rent single-family homes to sell those properties within seven years. That language had drawn fierce opposition from hard-line conservatives, who viewed it as government overreach into the free market.
The House version also introduces a new section on "Housing Supply Frameworks," aimed at establishing guidelines and best practices for zoning and land use policies.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, defended the changes, saying the revised bill preserves more than 90 percent of the Senate's original while adding key Democratic priorities. "We will be providing more relief and support to millions of families and communities all across the nation," she said on the House floor Tuesday.
Johnson, at a GOP press conference Wednesday, framed the bill as a response to the affordability crisis that is a top concern for voters ahead of the midterms. "It's going to increase the supply, and it's going to make it easier for local banks to deploy capital in their own communities. All those things are going to help with the cost of living, help with affordability," he said. He added that the House and Senate are "closely aligned" on getting a final bill to the president's desk quickly.
But the amended bill faces an uncertain path in the Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, accused House Republicans of trying to kill the legislation by weakening restrictions on institutional investors. She warned that altering that provision "kills the bill," noting that it matched language endorsed by former President Donald Trump and had passed the Senate overwhelmingly. The bill will need some Democratic support to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Trump, who had previously urged the House to pass the Senate's version, signaled approval for the House's changes on Wednesday. A White House statement of administration policy said the measure "would increase the availability of single-family homes and promote homeownership for working families" and urged both chambers to resolve differences quickly.
The housing debate comes as California and Texas dominate the list of America's most overpriced housing markets, highlighting the national scope of the affordability crisis. Earlier tensions over the bill were evident when House GOP defied Trump on the housing bill as floor vote set next week, and Trump and Senate GOP turned up heat on the House to pass the stalled housing bill.
Alexander Bolton and Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.
