House of Representatives Passes Affordable Housing Package
An overwhelming bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives Monday evening voted to pass comprehensive affordable housing legislation that includes more than 20 different housing-related bills. The legislation, titled the Housing for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 6644), is the first substantial bipartisan housing bill to clear the House in more than a decade. It is the product of months of negotiations among Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Housing Subcommittee Chair Mike Flood (R-NE) and Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO). NCSHA released a statement this morning praising the House for passing the legislation.
Endorsed by NCSHA, H.R. 6644 contains several NCSHA-supported bills, most notably the HOME Reform Act of 2025 (H.R. 5798), which would improve the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and the Community Investment and Prosperity Act (H.R. 5913), which would raise the cap on banks’ public welfare investments — a category that includes investments in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
The House Financial Services Committee passed the Housing for the 21st Century Act in December by a nearly unanimous vote. For details on the bill, see the section-by-section analysis and summary prepared by the committee.
The version of H.R. 6644 that passed the House is largely similar to the committee-passed version but does include one notable change to the HOME Reform Act language: The committee-passed legislation exempted HOME-funded projects from Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements. To address strong objections from Waters and other Democrats, the updated language removes this exemption and instead instructs HUD to review BABA implementation and issue new guidance clarifying its application to the HOME program. In addition, the new bill includes 12 community banking-related bills that also cleared the Financial Services Committee with strong bipartisan support.
H.R. 6644 passed the House by a vote of 390–9, with only eight Republicans and one Democrat voting in opposition. The Senate is reportedly planning to consider its own comprehensive housing legislation, the ROAD to Housing Act, in the coming weeks as a prelude to what is hoped will be negotiations on a final agreement between the House and Senate that both chambers could pass later this year.
NCSHA recently published an advocacy piece highlighting our priorities for both the ROAD to Housing Act and Housing for the 21st Century Act and breaking down which priorities are included in both bills and which in only one.
The Trump Administration yesterday put out a Statement of Administration Policy crediting H.R. 6644 for including reforms to lower housing construction costs but expressing concern the bill did not include other administration housing priorities, particularly a ban on single-family home purchases by institutional investors.
