When Hill Republicans succeed, President Donald Trump serves as their center of gravity, helping quiet intra-GOP disputes and pulling the party together.
Yet Trump — dealing with a difficult war in Iran and other priorities — isn’t playing that part for the GOP right now. If that vacuum persists, it could send a crucial, hugely bipartisan push for housing legislation completely off the rails.
The Senate is expected to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in a big bipartisan vote later this morning. The effort is led by Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
But as we scooped Wednesday night, Speaker Mike Johnson informed House GOP leaders this week that the president told him “no one gives a [bleep] about housing” — a message intended to convey that Trump has made the SAVE America Act his top legislative priority instead. And all of this is far in the background of the Iran war, which is dominating everything in Washington.
Without clear marching orders from Trump, Republicans are descending into a pitched bicameral standoff. Rank-and-file House Republicans and their leaders are threatening to force a formal negotiation, potentially unraveling the carefully crafted Senate package.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told us he’d spoken to House colleagues on Wednesday about potential tweaks to the Senate’s housing bill. But the Louisiana Republican also warned that if the House rips the bill apart, Congress’ chance to pass a housing bill this year will be over.
“We missed one opportunity. This is our second,” Kennedy said, citing the attempt to include housing legislation in the NDAA. “But I will tell you, if we don’t pass it this time, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Opposition from House GOP leaders to the Senate housing package has only strengthened in recent days, reflecting widespread angst among rank-and-file Republican members about the proposal and their lack of input on the final product. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Johnson said that they’re willing to force a formal conference negotiation, which opponents say would be arduous and time-consuming.
Much of the resistance has been led by House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and members of the House Freedom Caucus, though key House Democrats aren’t exactly thrilled either.
Counterpoint. Scott and Warren have argued that their housing bill is bicameral and incorporated many provisions from the House’s housing bill, dubbed the Housing for the 21st Century Act.
House leaders simply disagree, saying they’ve been cut out of the process and object to key alterations made without their buy-in. Likewise, conservatives haven’t been convinced by a crypto policy sweetener — a prohibition on the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency until 2031.
Senators remain confident their bill will prevail, meaning the House will get jammed.
“I think we’ll just stay the course, get the housing bill completed and, hopefully, this will still be one of those things that [Trump] can look at and say, this can be a victory for us,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said.
But presidential distractions will just keep on coming, and the legislative calendar is tightening as the midterms approach.
Whatever the reason, Trump’s absence from this domestic policy fight simply gives House Republicans more time to sharpen their knives. That, in turn, cranks up the political capital it will take to force the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act through the other chamber.
The Senate’s housing package has a lot going for it. The White House has expressed strong support for the Senate housing bill. The president got himself a crackdown on institutional investors buying single-family homes included in the package.
More importantly, the bill is a rare example of legislation actually addressing cost-of-living issues that Congress could pass before the midterms. Warren called it a “damn fine piece of legislation” in an interview Wednesday night.
All of that could be true, and none of it may matter if Trump doesn’t pull himself off the sidelines.
“There’s overwhelming support in the Senate,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said. “We’re going to get this over the finish line. And if the politicians will center the people rather than their own petty and partisan differences, we’ll get this done.”
News: Trump has appointed Republican lobbyist Jeff Miller to be the chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which runs the Holocaust Museum. Miller has been on the board since 2021. Miller is the founder of Miller Strategies and is one of the top GOP lobbyists in D.C.
