Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said Tuesday the chamber will move forward with its first procedural vote on updated bipartisan housing affordability legislation. The movement comes after the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees announced bicameral agreement on the long-awaited bill. The text of the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (SECTION by SECTION) was released Tuesday and contains most of the House-passed housing language, including the House’s version of a provision to restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The bill, which is focused on increasing the supply of homes, would not include a controversial provision requiring major investors to sell any housing units they build within seven years, but would cap the number of single-family homes they could buy at 350. Six Senate bills stripped from the House-passed package were also added back onto the bill with “meaningful changes” to address House concerns, according to a note the Senate Banking Committee circulated with the bill text. Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of housing legislation — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald J. Trump. House GOP leaders plan to put the housing bill up for an expedited vote immediately upon the House’s return from recess on June 23.
For today, the Senate will also take up Confirmation of Executive Calendar #760 Michelle Steel, of California, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and a Motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #763 George Holding, of North Carolina, to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
