U.S. Senate passes Kennedy’s homeownership legislation as part of major housing package

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate passed Sen. John Kennedy's (R-La.) Build Now Act, as part of a major housing package, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Kennedy's bill would incentivize new home construction by tying federal funds to cities' rates of home construction. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act contains several pieces of housing legislation authored by members other than Kennedy. Following full U.S. Senate passage, the bill will require the U.S. House of Representatives' approval before reaching the president's desk.

"The Senate's passage of my Build Now Act marks a significant step toward making the American Dream of homeownership achievable again for young families. For too long, red tape has stalled home construction and driven up housing prices. My bill rewards communities that actually build homes rather than block them. I look forward to seeing it become law and get our communities building again," said Kennedy.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Kennedy in introducing the Build Now Act.

"Americans are suffering under sky-high housing prices caused by a worsening housing shortage. The Senate passed landmark legislation to lower housing costs, including a bill that I introduced with Senator Kennedy to reward communities that are taking bold action to build more housing. It's time for the House to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act," said Warren.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) provides annual grants to states, cities, and counties irrespective of their rate of homebuilding.

The Build Now Act would:

• Require HUD to remove 10% of CDBG funding from cities that are below the national median housing growth improvement rate, which measures whether homebuilding in a city meets the national median rate of homebuilding.

• Direct HUD to proportionally reallocate those CDBG funds to cities that exceeded the national median housing growth rate. Under the Build Now Act, cities with the highest growth rates would receive larger shares of funds as they are reallocated.

• Exempt metropolitan areas from CDBG readjustments where the median home value is below the national median or for cities that issued an emergency disaster declaration in the last year.

Kennedy has long championed the cause of making homeownership easier for families:

• In January 2025, Kennedy questioned then-HUD Secretary nominee Scott Turner about the failures of previous affordable housing policies. During this hearing, he suggested an approach that would incentivize localities to allow more new home construction without affording excessive power to the federal government.

• At a hearing one week later, Kennedy outlined a potential "carrot-and-stick" system that would spur new home construction while allowing local governments to determine their exact means of doing so.

• In February 2025, Kennedy questioned then-Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency nominee Bill Pulte on the consequences of Americans borrowing large amounts of money to buy homes, noting that "we've got a house of cards here."

• In a July 2025 Banking Committee markup of the then-ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, Kennedy discussed his proposal, stating, "Senator Warren and I have a provision in this bill that would, I think, help generate housing in America. The most stunning statistic to me is the fact that the median age of a … first-time homeowner in America today is 38. Wow. That's almost 40 [years old] before you can afford a home. … We've got a problem."

• In January 2026, Kennedy delivered a speech from the U.S. Senate floor urging passage of the Build Now Act, noting that "[t]his bill will lower the cost of housing in America, and it will do it under basic principles of free enterprise."

Full text of Kennedy's Build Now Act is available here.

Full text of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, of which Kennedy's Build Now Act is a part, is available here.