Warren Speaks on Senate Floor In Support of Biggest Housing Bill in 30 Years

Warren Speaks on Senate Floor In Support of Biggest Housing Bill in 30 Years

Senate takes first vote on the latest 21st Century Road to Housing Act, supported by bipartisan, bicameral leaders

Warren: "This landmark bill will boost housing supply, bring down costs, and - for the first time ever - stop private equity from buying up single-family homes."

Watch Remarks Here (X)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor in support of the final version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which was announced earlier today with the support of Ranking Member Warren, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Chairman of the Committee; Representative French Hill (R-Ark.), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee; and Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Below are Ranking Member Warren's remarks as delivered:

"Thank you, Mr. President. America is in a full-blown housing crisis. Across this country, home prices are sky-high, rent is through the roof, and the median age of a first-time homebuyer is now at an all-time high.

But for too long, the federal government has been asleep at the switch, and that changes today.

I stand here in support of the historic 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. This landmark bill will boost housing supply, bring down costs, and - for the first time ever - stop private equity from buying up single-family homes.

Yes, we are about to do it - pass the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years.

This bill has more than 45 total housing provisions, designed to help increase housing supply and bring down costs. Here are just a few of the things the bill will do:

It removes regulatory barriers and streamlines environmental reviews to speed up affordable housing development and to speed up the construction process. It rewards communities that build more housing and prods those that are not building to step up and build more.

It makes it easier and cheaper to build new manufactured housing by removing outdated chassis requirements, and brings down the cost of a new unit by up to $10,000.

It creates an "Innovation Fund" - something I've been proposing for years - to help reward communities that are successfully building more housing with new funds for community infrastructure or to build even more housing.

It will make long-needed improvements to rural housing programs to preserve affordable housing for 400,000 rural families.

It strengthens the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the HOME programs to get more affordable housing built, and it finally authorizes the CDBG-Disaster Recovery program to get money out to disaster-stricken communities faster.

It offers new and streamlined funding opportunities for cities and towns to bolster local infrastructure and to convert abandoned buildings into new housing; for homeowners and landlords to make structural home repairs; and for homebuilders to finance new manufactured and modular housing.

And there is so much more. This bill supports more housing opportunities for veterans, it takes action to reduce homelessness, and it helps end appraisal bias.

And finally, for the first time ever, Congress is acting to stop private equity's housing grab. I've been calling for this for years. And even six months ago, nobody thought this was possible.

With this bill, we will get single-family homes back into the hands of American families, not corporations. An overwhelming majority of Americans across party lines want to stop private equity from snapping up single-family homes, and this bill does exactly that.

This bill also makes sure that corporate landlords who don't follow the law pay up - and it invests any money they pay in fines to build more housing and to help first-time homebuyers with direct assistance for down payments, with closing costs and with interest rate buydowns.

There is so much in this bill. Each piece directing us toward increasing the supply of housing, bringing down the cost, and making housing something that is not just a Wall Street investment, but is actually there for American families.

I want to say a very special thank you to Senator Tim Scott for his partnership on this historic bill and leading the Senate Banking Committee.

I also want to give a very special thank you to Ranking Member Waters and to Chairman Hill for their work over on the House side to get this bill across the finish line. I want to say especially with Maxine Waters, she has led so many of us for so many years in trying to expand housing all across America, to try to make sure that housing is affordable, and safe, and available for every American. And this bill is just a little down payment on the promise that she has offered for decades. I am grateful for her leadership and grateful for her helping get us here today.

I also want to note that every single member of the Banking Committee-Republican and Democrat-added ideas and specific provisions that made it into this bill. I thank them for their very thoughtful and creative contributions. I also want to thank Senators who are not on the Committee who also helped participate and helped us get good housing ideas into this bill. Particularly Senator Merkley and Senator Klobuchar, neither of whom is on the Committee, who also joined Senator Warnock, who is on the Committee, in pushing to get private equity out of the housing market. I want to say a very special thank you to them. I also want to thank Senator Schatz, who is not on the Committee, who helped us with the disaster relief provisions.

I have one more thank you that dates back for years now, and that is a very special thank you to the state and local officials, including the Mayors across Massachusetts and around the country, who helped shape this bill, who really told us about places where we could change federal law that would make a difference for them in their local communities in being able to bring down the cost of housing. I am grateful to them for the content they helped put into this bill, and I am grateful to them for raising their voices to help us get it passed.

So, here we are, in a moment when the United States Senate and the House of Representatives may actually get something done, get it over to the President's desk, and it's something that's good for the American people.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield my time.

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