Congressional Republicans face increasing political pressure to get bipartisan housing legislation on President Donald Trump’s desk before the midterm elections, amid rising voter dismay over affordability.The bipartisan legislation in question is the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which cleared the Senate in March. The proposal has been held up in the House of Representatives, with some Republicans upset about provisions added to the bill in the upper chamber, which, they say, could limit the nation’s housing supply.The underlying bill is meant to ease the housing affordability crunch by lessening some government regulations on housing and incentivizing state and local governments to ease land-use regulations. The rising cost of housing has played a major role in the broader inflation that has sent consumer sentiment to record lows. Higher costs have also driven up disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy 16 months into his second, nonconsecutive term.
And the longer the legislative logjam persists, the more it deprives the GOP of a key affordability talking point to present to voters on the campaign trail. The midterm elections are Nov. 3, and polls show Democrats in a strong position to win the House, though that climb has been made steeper by recent adverse court decisions on redistricting and new GOP congressional gerrymanders enacted in state capitals.
