News. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is rallying House Democrats to go to conference on the housing bill.
Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, is planning to send a “Dear Colleague” letter this morning that lays out why she’s demanding a formal conference negotiation with the Senate.
Waters says in the letter that the Senate scrapped provisions House Democrats fought for that would’ve made the legislation stronger, according to a copy we obtained.
The veteran California Democrat adds there’s a need to address stakeholder concerns raised since the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, including warnings “about whether the bill now curtails the construction of new homes and creates other unintended consequences.”
Democrats on the committee have reservations about several policies in the bill, including how it cracks down on institutional investors owning “built-to-rent” housing. Democrats also say co-ops were left out, which is a big deal for members from New York City.
In all, the letter details 33 changes HFSC Democrats want, according to a copy viewed by Punchbowl News.
The committee’s Democrats held a call on Sunday night, where members backed up the push to go to conference, according to a Democratic aide.
Inside the standoff. Waters’ call for a bicameral conference comes as House Republicans are threatening to demand the formal process too. Waters and HFSC Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) are both rejecting the Senate’s bill. House members are seething about feeling cut out of the negotiating process.
But it’s worth noting that while House Democrats and Republicans can agree on not wanting to get jammed by the Senate, they disagree about crucial changes to the bill. For example, HFSC Democrats want to scrap the legislation’s temporary ban on a central bank digital currency. House GOP conservatives are demanding a permanent ban.
The whole episode is inflaming tensions between the HFSC and Senate Banking Committee’s GOP chairs, as we told you in Sunday’s Vault. Banking leaders are resisting the calls for a conference and pressuring their House counterparts to swallow the Senate bill.
Key senators are counting on President Donald Trump to force the House’s hand. But Trump hasn’t been focused on the housing bill. The president is instead consumed by his push for the SAVE America Act and the war with Iran.
If House and Senate leaders can’t work out their differences, the housing affordability push could collapse. That would be a big missed opportunity for the GOP to do something about cost-of-living issues before the midterms.
Another bit of HFSC news. Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) is leading a group of Financial Services Democrats in a letter demanding Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testify before the panel about the administration’s policy on lifting Iranian oil sanctions.
