Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Ahead Of Senate Passage Of The Bipartisan ROAD To Housing Act

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor celebrating the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act, a necessary step towards addressing the housing crisis and helping Americans secure access to affordable housing options. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

As Trump fixates on vanity projects that only he seems to care about, we're advancing our housing bill to address issues Americans actually care about.

As homeownership has gotten further and further out of the reach for working families, so has the American dream. It is every young family's dream to own their own home. So when they pay money it builds equity, it builds a future, for their retirement, for their kids. Instead when you pay rent the money just goes away. So people want home ownership. But now the median homebuyer in America is now 40 years old. The down payment is excruciating and puts housing out of reach for them. A record 242 U.S. cities now have typical starter homes valued at $1 million or more.

ROAD to Housing helps put our country on the right track toward fixing the housing shortage that's driving up costs.

The legislation starts to streamline the zoning bottlenecks that have slowed down construction from one end of the country to the other.

The bill also supports new manufactured and modular housing as well as the conversion, something really important to New York and to me, the conversion of old office buildings into housing so that we can get more homes on the market.

ROAD to Housing also stops institutional investors from squeezing American families out of the housing market.

The ROAD to Housing is a strong start, but just the beginning.

Democrats will continue to come up with innovative solutions to lower the cost of housing and all the other necessities that working families need to achieve the American dream which seems more out of reach than ever before because of this administration.

We'll work with whomever it takes to end the affordability crisis. Congratulations to Senator Warren, congratulations to the members of the Banking Committee for their leadership on this bill and congratulations to all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who supported it.

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