Let’s be clear: The House isn’t about to take up the Senate’s landmark housing development bill, which passed by a 89-10 margin in March. But they’re sure trying to pass something.
For the last month, House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) has been negotiating with Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat, to find a tolerable compromise for both parties. The goal is for the House to pass the bill on suspension by a large bipartisan margin.
But what they pass, and how they do it, remain open questions.
Real talk(s). Hill and Waters haven’t come to a bipartisan agreement yet, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
In the meantime, House Republican leadership has urged the committee to tinker with the Senate’s bill rather than overhaul it. GOP leadership shared some language in the legislation this week. This reflected input from Waters, but it didn’t have her sign-off. GOP leadership sources also said they don’t have a full draft of the bill.
The core focus of these talks remains the same. Lawmakers want to change Section 901 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which limits the role of large investors in the single-family housing market.
In particular, House lawmakers have discussed changes to the Senate bill’s treatment of “Build to Rent” housing. The language, which requires “Build to Rent” firms to sell off those units seven years after constructing them, has encountered stiff resistance from both industry groups and the House itself.
Enter the CBDC. There are also talks on setting stronger limits on a central bank digital currency, as demanded by conservative hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus.
At this point, we expect the House to strengthen the CBDC prohibition from the Senate’s roughly five-year ban, possibly by extending the horizon. But it’s too early to say what form that language will take. The bill will certainly need support from Senate Democrats to pass.
For its part, Senate backers continue to believe that any changes to their housing bill will shatter the coalition that passed it in the first place. But the Senate bill, as it stands, can’t pass the House. The votes aren’t there.
Paging 1600 Penn. Multiple sources tell us the House’s effort to rework the Senate’s bill has been slowed down by uneven engagement from the administration.
The White House continues to send badly mixed signals about what it wants in housing legislation. On the one hand, there are reports that President Donald Trump doesn’t care for the Senate’s “Build to Rent” language.
On the other hand, some White House officials continue to tell us they support the Senate’s housing bill, and the easiest path forward is for the House to swallow it. The White House said on March 2 that it “strongly supports” the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
