WASHINGTON—House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill and Ranking Member Maxine Waters on Tuesday unveiled revised legislation tied to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that would amend the Senate-passed version of the bill, with supporters saying the updated package is designed to boost housing supply, reduce regulatory barriers and restore several community banking provisions removed during earlier negotiations.
The House amendment to H.R. 6644 would preserve provisions aimed at streamlining housing development, encouraging new construction and modernizing federal housing programs, while also adding measures intended to ease regulatory burdens on smaller financial institutions involved in construction and local housing finance. Committee leaders said the proposal reflects months of bipartisan negotiations and feedback from lawmakers and market participants.
Hill said the revised package “prioritizes American families by expanding homeownership, enhancing affordability, reducing burdensome regulations that drive up costs, and increasing housing supply nationwide,” while also delivering on President Trump’s stated goal of limiting institutional investors from competing with consumers seeking to purchase homes. Waters said the legislation is intended to address what she called a growing affordable housing and homelessness crisis while reducing barriers slowing development of affordable and modular housing.
According to a House Financial Services Committee summary released with the legislation, the measure seeks to address a national housing shortage estimated at as many as 5.5 million units by reducing regulatory barriers, modernizing HUD programs and expanding financing flexibility for banks supporting housing development. The summary said the bill would allow the use of pre-approved home designs to speed permitting, streamline federal and local housing processes, and strengthen local housing operations in both rural and urban markets.
The package also includes provisions affecting financial institutions, including efforts to streamline bank examinations, modernize regulatory thresholds and expand community and rural banks’ access to stable deposits intended to support local lending. The summary additionally said the bill would support rural banks, encourage the formation of new banks and provide regulators additional flexibility in handling bank failures without disrupting local banking access.