House Passes Housing Bill; White House Expresses Support
A strong bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives earlier today passed a revised version of a comprehensive affordable housing package — the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644) — shortly after House leaders and the White House agreed to amendments to the version released in the House last week. The legislation contains more than 40 affordable housing bills, including several NCSHA priorities. It passed by a vote of 396 – 13, with all Democrats and all but 13 Republicans voting in support.
The version of H.R. 6644 passed by the House largely reflects updated text House leaders released last week. The legislation includes many of the strong bipartisan housing provisions included in the version of the bill that passed the Senate in March. NCSHA put out a statement supporting the bill last week and summarized it in more detail on our blog.
Before passing the bill, House leaders made several revisions to the text they introduced last week. Most notably, language was removed that would have explicitly exempted single-family rental properties financed through the Housing Credit from a provision of the bill that prohibits institutional investors from owning more than 350 homes. NCSHA pushed for such language to be included to ensure the institutional investor prohibition does not impact Housing Credit properties. In remarks on the House floor yesterday evening, Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), who led House negotiations on the bill, both clarified for the record that the institutional investor prohibition does not apply to Housing Credit properties or to housing for military members, students, and individuals with disabilities. They both called on Treasury to promulgate regulations codifying the exemption for Housing Credit properties.
The bill now will be sent back to the Senate. It is not yet clear when and if the Senate will consider the legislation. Prior to last week, Senate leaders were pressing the House to take up the version of the legislation it passed in March without changes. House leaders have countered that the Senate bill would not be able to pass the lower chamber due to member objections to aspects of the Senate’s bill. Some media reports have indicated some Senate Republicans are now open to passing H.R. 6644 in its current form.
The White House this morning issued a Statement of Administration Policy expressing its support for the House bill after previously urging the House to pass the version of the legislation the Senate passed in March.
