As Congress returns for 2026, a pair of separate housing legislation efforts will loom large for Washington’s financial policy committees. Both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees produced bipartisan bills aimed at easing the development of new housing in 2025.
But the big question is whether the two panels can actually square their visions as the White House stares down voters’ concerns about affordability. The Senate has the bigger bill of the two chambers — 316 pages to the House’s 120 pages — and senators would like to keep it that way.
“I don’t think this is the time to be timid,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “I think we ought to throw deep, and I think our bill throws deeper than theirs does. But I’m willing to sit down and work it out.”
