The House is out of session for the Democrat’s Issues Retreat and will return on Tuesday, March 3rd.
The Senate convened at 10:00 A.M. and will take up Confirmation of Executive Calendar #651 Ryan McCormack, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy.
Before leaving this week, the Senate will tee up a bipartisan housing bill sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), legislation that would ban large investment firms from snapping up single-family homes, a measure they say is aimed at the country’s housing affordability crunch. The bill was introduced today, (TEXT) two days after President Donald J. Trump urged lawmakers in his State of the Union address to put limits on institutional investors buying houses. It will be the first new piece of proposed legislation on the issue since President Trump’s speech, though Merkley and over a dozen Democrats introduced a different bill on the same topic earlier this week. The legislation, known as the Homes for American Families Act, would amend the landmark Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to make it illegal for investment funds with over $150 million in assets to buy single-family homes, condominiums or townhouses. It doesn’t apply to homebuilders that are constructing units for sale. It would also task the Justice Department’s antitrust division, which brings civil suits to quash alleged anticompetitive practices, with enforcing the law. Mr. Trump signed an executive order last month directing federal agencies to avoid approving, guaranteeing or facilitating the sale of most single-family homes to large institutional investors.
