Housing supply and affordability remain ongoing issues for prospective homebuyers, and the United States Senate is now taking action. In an hour-long executive session, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs voted to advance a comprehensive housing reform bill, the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025.
Addressing an extremely broad swath of policy priorities, the bill contains everything from direct financial support for homeowners and local governments, to requirements that certain housing agency heads testify annually before Congress, to reducing environmental reviews on certain projects.
The bill must still face a full vote on the Senate floor before it makes it to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing. However, the bill advanced by a unanimous “yes” vote, and committee members indicated they will be pushing for it to get a floor vote.
“Bipartisan” was the word of the day at the session, with present senators—including Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—praising a collaborative effort in assembling the bill. The ROAD to Housing Act is broad legislation that folds together many different bills championed by different members of the committee.
“The package includes proposals from every single member of this committee,” claimed Warren in her opening remarks before listing off many of those proposals and which Senators sponsored them.
“So many Americans are frustrated by the rising cost of housing, and it seems to be a problem that is so elusive that no one seems to find—not a solution to it, because that there’s not a solution to it—but even a step in the direction of solving a problem that is so pervasive,” added Scott in his subsequent opening speech. “Today, we’re taking not a step, but a leap in the right direction in a bipartisan fashion.”
Sections of the bill address the incentivization of housing construction, financial assistance programs and more. The second section of the bill, Building More in America, is the longest with 13 provisions out of 40 intended to incentivize more construction nationwide.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) said in his pre-prepared statement that “housing is only tangentially a federal issue,” as local governments directly oversee land use.
“I don’t think we need to be telling our friends in local government how to increase the housing stock. I do think we should use our role, which is to provide the money, in a way that (incentivizes) local government to build more houses,” Kennedy continued in explaining the bill’s goals in increasing housing supply through competitive grants.
Building More in America also includes a provision that allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to give weighted advantage to grant applicants building in Opportunity Zones, or areas which are tax-advantaged for developers to revitalize.
The bill also includes a new block grant pilot program that incentivizes the construction of housing for recipient localities, creates a HUD grant program for communities to develop pre-approved housing designs so as to streamline the approval and building process, cuts certain environmental regulations to allow for faster construction and more.
The bill also incentivizes efforts to address the housing supply shortage not just through traditional construction, but manufactured housing as well. Section 3 of the bill makes changes such as updating the definition of modular housing to encourage the construction of units and updating mortgage lending standards through the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) intended to expand access for financing for modular homes.
Sections 4 and 7 of the bill include provisions addressing the home appraisal process, designed to boost the appraiser workforce and improve appraisal fairness (including consumers being able to request a second appraisal). Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who pushed for zoning and appraisal reform in the bill, said that “housing is human dignity” in his pre-prepared remarks and described these provisions as a good “first step” to achieving that.
Despite the bill’s comprehensiveness, not every proposal made it in. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a supporter of crypto and digital currencies, withdrew an amendment during the session that would have mandated that Fannie Mae consider digital assets in a mortgage loan risk assessment, similar to a directive by the FHFA.
“This bill is in such good shape going forward,” said Lummis when explaining why she was withdrawing the amendment, but said she was raising the amendment to “plant a seed for further discussion (of digital currency policy) at a later date.”
Following the committee vote, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) President Buddy Hughes released a statement praising the bill and the efforts to see it passed.
“Building more homes is the only way to ease America’s housing affordability crisis, and the ROAD to Housing Act includes favorable provisions aimed at zoning and land-use policies, rural housing and multifamily housing that will stimulate construction of sorely needed housing,” said Hughes in his statement. “We look forward to working with Congress and President Trump to enact a bicameral, bipartisan housing package that addresses supply-side and regulatory issues that are acting as barriers to build more homes.”
For a video recording of the committee executive session, click here.
