President Donald Trump canceled the signing of landmark bipartisan housing legislation, just hours before a scheduled ceremony on Wednesday, to demand passage of the major voter identification bill that has failed to advance in the Senate.
Trump was slated to sign the housing bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, on Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, but he unexpectedly said he would delay doing so until the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” the president said on social media. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Just before that, he downplayed the importance of the legislation.
“The Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump said, referencing legislation that would mandate voter ID and proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
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“Get the bad Republicans to approve it or, better yet, Terminate the Filibuster and approve it, AND EVERYTHING ELSE REPUBLICANS HAVE EVER DREAMED OF,” the president continued. “The Dumocrats will do it in hour one, 100%.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has pushed hard for the Senate to take up the voter ID bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has said the GOP does not have the votes.
Trump is scheduled to attend a closed-door meeting with GOP senators on Wednesday, during which the SAVE America Act will be a major point of conversation.
Some House Republicans tried to stage a rebellion over the housing bill to demand passage of the voter ID bill, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). On the final vote, 32 Republicans voted against passage.
Still, the legislation will become law unless Trump vetoes it. And it passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said after Trump’s surprise announcement that the president likely will sign the bill. He suggested that Trump wants to see movement on a bill advancing voter ID measures through the special legislative process known as reconciliation, which would allow Republicans to bypass the filibuster.
It is notable that Trump is downplaying the housing bill in the lead-up to the midterm elections. It is one of the few legislative victories that Republicans would be able to cite regarding affordability, a top concern for voters.
“It’s a shame the president doesn’t want a win on an issue he himself said was a priority during his State of the Union due to poor advice from some of the loudest voices who are not seeded in reality when it comes to the SAVE America Act,” one senior GOP aide said in a text to the Washington Examiner.
Although the signing ceremony cancellation came as a surprise to congressional leaders, Trump has projected skepticism about the underlying bill in recent months. He said in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner in April that housing is “all about interest rates,” not supply, and that “we have other things we’re pushing that are bigger, and right now, more important.”
Broadly, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is designed to bring down costs by increasing the housing supply, a long-standing goal for affordable housing advocates who say the U.S. housing market is millions of homes short of where it should be. Supporters have said it would be the most consequential housing bill in a generation, at a time when the cost of buying a typical home has risen about 50%, relative to incomes, in the past five years or so.
The final version of the legislation, which came after months of negotiations and revisions between the House and the Senate, includes 47 housing supply provisions.
The legislation streamlines environmental reviews to speed up affordable housing development and makes it cheaper and easier to build manufactured homes.
In addition to easing federal regulations, the bill also encourages states and cities to reform their land-use rules, which would mark a significant change in the federalist system of land-use rules, and more.
The bill also includes a ban on large investors, such as Blackstone, from buying single-family homes. That measure was demanded by Trump, against the wishes of many Republicans.
It was instead favored by liberal Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
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“Donald Trump has made clear that he isn’t worried about families’ rising expenses,” Warren said Wednesday on CNBC after Trump announced the cancellation of the signing. “He said that affordability is a hoax made up by Democrats. He said he doesn’t care about families’ economic pressure.”
Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, negotiated much of the bill with the chairman of the panel, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
