The Landmark Housing Bill That Trump Refuses to Sign

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New York Times Cooking has you covered with easy dishes for busy weak-knights. You can find more at NYT Cooking.com. From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is The Daily. President Trump has called it the most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation

in the history of our country. And a Congress controlled by his own party has now passed by overwhelming margins. So why is the president refusing to sign it? Today, my colleague, Michael Gold,

on the strange saga of a landmark housing bill. It's Monday, July 6th.

Michael Gold always a pleasure.

Happy to be here, Michael, thanks. So over the next few days, President Trump has to make a decision that on paper, I think we can even argue objectively, seems kind of like a no-brainer.

“That's how I would view it if I were a politician.”

So it seems very intuitive that the president would sign this housing bill because housing affordability is a major issue for Americans. It's something he talked about on a campaign trail when he was running in 2024. And the midterm elections are in about four months. And it would be a very clear demonstration that the president cares about affordability.

He cares about addressing these cost of living concerns, which is something that Republicans are very eager to demonstrate. But I think the fact that the president isn't signing this bill really exemplifies just how dysfunctional his relationship with Congress has become and how divergent his own interests are from Republicans in his party

and from many of voters in the country. Well, tell us a story of this housing bill, which we really haven't covered all that much on the show and how we got to this point where it has reached the president's desk. Sure, so I think anyone who has tried to buy a house,

paid rent, looked for an apartment in the last few years can tell you.

“The countries in the middle of a housing crisis.”

And it started in a lot of the big American cities, but it seems to have really spread across the country. And as both parties are campaigning in 2024, politicians across the political spectrum agree that they need to do something to address housing because people need a place to live and without a place to live,

you know, their chances of all kinds of economic security basically evaporate.

All right, so the president takes office in January 2025. And he's not really saying much about housing, he is a handful of other priorities that he's addressing, but in the background, members of Congress decide that they're going to try to do something about this and they start working on their own housing legislation. And that's kicking around for a while.

But it involves kind of an interesting cast of characters. So in the Senate, you have Tim Scott of South Carolina. He's a Republican. He runs the Senate, banking committee. And you have Elizabeth Warren, a progressive Democrat for Massachusetts. And they're working with their counterparts in the house on this,

French Hill, who's kind of a mainstream conservative Republican from Arkansas, and Maxine Waters, a little bit more to the left, perhaps not as far as Warren, and she's from California. Yeah, but there's really is odd, but fellows. Yeah, and look, this is how Congress is supposed to work.

Lawmakers who have a common interest work together, they put party aside, and they start hammering out a deal. And so this is what's going on for most of last year. And at this point, the president's not really saying much about it. He's focused on the big beautiful bill, he's focused on immigration policy.

This just isn't top of mind for him, but as we round into 2026, it's a midterm election year. And affordability is top of mind for the American voter. And it's shown in poll after poll that cost-of-living is the number one problem that voters have in its an area where they're judging the president's success.

And something that they're going to vote on when it comes to the midterms. Right, kind of becomes the by-word for the midterm elections in general. Who's going to own affordability? Absolutely, and Democrats really seize on this. They make it very clear this is going to be a major issue for them.

So coming into the start of the year, it's January. And Congress makes clear that they really want to get a housing bill done. They've given it a name, they call it the 21st century road to housing act, which is supposed to represent the scope of their ambition here. They want to do something really big on housing.

That's really going to help a lot of people. Well, what is in this bill? What is the scope of Congress's ambition for housing in the 21st century?

making it easier to build new homes, making it cheaper to build new homes.

And they do this in a few ways.

“Most notably, this bill would ease a number of federal regulations,”

things like environmental reviews, changing the rules for what's known as manufactured housing, which is cheaper to build than building a house in a lot starting from scratch. Well, these are the factory bill houses that get constructed off site brought in and suddenly have a home. Exactly, yeah, they decide to change some regulations to make a cheaper to build those kinds of homes. They also change some grant programs.

They want to make it easier to refurbish old aging properties. They want to make it easier for municipalities to turn maybe a vacant factory into housing, things like that. And they offer a lot of economic incentives, whether through grants or other programs, so that local governments would be encouraged to support new construction,

maybe change some zoning rules. And on the consumer side, they make it easier for some consumers to get mortgages in the hopes this will help them be able to buy lower cost homes. So it contains a raft of incentives to build more housing. It cuts a bunch of the red tape that can slow down the construction of housing,

and it makes it in theory more affordable than buy those final housing units. That's right, but there's also one more provision in here that Congress puts in, which is designed to address the president. So around the time, the details of this bill are getting worked out at the beginning of the year. President Trump starts to talk about housing a bit more.

Another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is homeownership. He seems to realize that with the midterms coming up, we want people to be able to buy home.

“He needs to demonstrate that he's worried about this issue, which is so crucial for many Americans.”

We want to make it possible for every American to live that American dream in a beautiful home. And it's really the one that they pick. It's going to be the apple of their right. And he tells Congress that he wants to see a limit on the ability of big Wall Street investors to buy single-family homes that he thinks should be going toward American people.

We want homes for people, not for corporations, corporations to do it just fine. And this is kind of a populist idea, but at its heart is the idea that homes for people to live in should be bought by people. They should be available to people. And there's concerns that having a lot of deep pocketed investors come in and buy homes is actually

reducing supply for American people. And so the president signals that he thinks this is really important. And members of Congress hear him, and as they're working at the details of the bill, they put in restrictions on how much housing large investors can buy. So this is looking like an all systems go real momentum kind of dynamic. Congress wants this. The president seems to want it. Seems like this is headed for

passage. Yes. And so this diverse group of people who we talked about earlier are succeeds.

And at the end of June, the Senate passes this housing bill 85 to 5, an incredible margin

in a very closely divided partisan Congress. They sent it over to the house. The house quickly takes it up. And they pass it in a similarly lopsided fashion. And everyone is happy. Everyone in Congress got this bill, Mike Johnson,

“French Hill. I don't say this a lot. Well, is this Warren?”

But today, I'm proud to be a member of the United States Senate. Tim Scott. This was a bipartisan by-camera issue to do the work of the people. John Thun, who's the leader of the Senate. I look forward to getting this bill to the president's desk and delivering another major win for the American people. They are all thrilled and it looks like this bill is going to become a law. Right. A real government even in this era can work

kind of moment. Yeah, at a time when no one thinks the government can do this, you know, we haven't seen much bipartisan legislation. And everyone is really pleased that they can kind of path themselves in the back, but also that they can show voters look, we can come together and we can fix this issue that's really important to you. And they decide to plan a signing ceremony at the Capitol. President's going to come, the speaker will be there. Senator John Thun will be there and everyone's

going to stand on a stage and talk about how excited they are. And they want to path themselves in the back, but they also want a photo opportunity. They want to get on see span. They want to get on Fox News and CNN. They want to be able to show American people look at what we did for you. Look at us coming together. Here's the footage that we can, you know, have in our campaign ads and that we'll have circulating for the next several weeks. Right. So the signing ceremony is scheduled

for Wednesday, June 24th and preparations are underway. They're building a stage in the Capitol. They're telling the press that it's happening. They're making sure everybody is ready, making sure everybody's going to be there. And then it all falls apart. How so? Well, Michael, the day before the signing ceremony is supposed to happen, the Senate takes a vote that infuriates President Trump. For the past few months, the Senate has been repeatedly voting on what's known as a war

power's resolution. And these are resolutions that direct the president to seek congressional approval for the military conflict in Iran, which he started without notifying Congress.

Right. And these votes have been failing. Democrats keep bringing them, but they never make it

past the threshold to succeed. But the day before the signing ceremony, enough for Republicans

at that very moment, his administration is negotiating with Iran on a ceasefire and a deal that would end the war. And so the president is furious because he feels like Congress is essentially tying one hand behind his back as he's trying to come up with a way to end this conflict and move forward. Right. So the Iran War vote is Tuesday. And the next morning is the signing ceremony for the housing bill. And I roll up to the hill, and I walk past the stage being built. And as I'm

walking through the Capitol, Senator Johnson, who's the Republican leader of the Senate, majority leader. President, I ask unanimous consent. He is on the floor, giving his morning floor speech. And Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team, they're standing at a press conference,

“talking about this bill and what it's going to do for the American people. A really important”

bill to lower housing costs. We delivered for American families. And everyone is gearing up for a

big day. It's always a big day when the president comes to Capitol. Right. Suddenly out of nowhere,

hours before the signing ceremony is supposed to take place. The president goes on his social media platform, true social, and says that he will not sign the housing bill. Well, he kills the ceremony. And as senators are speaking, as members of the House of Public and Congress are speaking, I'll take a few questions. In the process of this press conference, President Trump announced that he is canceling the bill signing for the housing bill that you all were just talking about.

They don't seem to be aware that the president has just killed what was going to be their big achievement at the day. Yeah, my reaction is the president. When we go through the details of the bill, he's going to understand that it's a good product. At one point a number of Congress walks

“up to the signing ceremony. Looks around doesn't seem to know where anyone is. And reporters have”

to tell her that the signing ceremony is not happening. And she leaves, and a bunch of reporters are still standing there. Watching as this stage, which was supposed to be the platform for this major

legislative achievement. This huge bipartisan breakthrough is empty and workers start taking it apart,

piece by piece. And we're all left really trying to figure out what's going on and what's going to happen next. We'll do it back. I'm Kate Kelly. I'm an investigative correspondent, covering money and influence for the New York Times. I remember a story that I worked on, there was a conspiracy theory about this event. At the time, I thought that can't be true. That seems extreme. So I went about the reporting. I did a whole ton of interviews. And I

wrote a draft of the story. But there was a little part of me that thought, you don't quite have this. So I went back out and it's more reporting digging into that little piece that was bugging me. And it turned out the conspiracies were essentially right. Because I had that extra time and I was

“willing to be surprised. I think I got the right story and was able to deliver that to our readers.”

So I'm really grateful that that open-mindedness is there in me, but is also shot through our institution where the editor will say, yeah, take another two weeks and get it right. If this kind of independent journalism is important to you, you can support it and the coverage that I do by subscribing to The New York Times. Michael, what's your understanding of why the president canceled this much anticipated signing ceremony

and says he is not going to sign the bill? Is this him basically just being sore over the war power's

resolution? Well, the war power's resolution certainly doesn't help. But when the president announces in his social media post that he's canceling the signing ceremony for the housing bill, he points to something else. He points to the Save America Act. The Save America Act is the president's long-sought election bill that comes out of his years of fixation on voter fraud. And his debunk claims of voter fraud in the American elections. This bill would impose

a national requirement that voter show identification at the polls. It would require that they provide professed citizenship when they write a certain vote. And it would severely restrict voting by mail, which is something that many Republican senators oppose. And is a major reason why Republicans have repeatedly told the president that they don't have the votes to pass this bill. And so the bill has stalled in the Senate, but it seems like President Trump has realized it

now he has some leverage. He has this housing bill that everyone wants to become a law. He has a signing ceremony that everyone wants to happen. And so when he makes his social media post, canceling the signing ceremony, he says he will not sign the housing bill until Congress passes. The Save America Act, which he says he considers to be a national emergency. I mean, why does the president insist on linking these two bills given the political

impact of the election bill ever passing? Is it actually the president imagining that this hostage holding will work to get Save America passed or something else going on?

Senate will find a way to do his bidding. But I think the bigger issue here is that over the past few months, a lot of senators have become more independently minded. And they've started to push back against things that the president wants that they don't think meets their political interests. And that's where the Iran war powers vote that we talked about starts to come into the mix. Because that was a very high profile display of Republicans rejecting the president's foreign policy

initiative. And there have been a few other cases in the last few months where Republicans

have said that they can't just finally go along with the president's wishes and that they're

going to push back against him. I think Save America for President Trump represents the greatest

“pushback because in his view and he said this before, the only way for Republicans to win in the”

midterms is if they pass this law. But Republicans in Congress are trying to focus on affordability. They want to talk about issues. They want to highlight these things that they can deliver for the American people. And that's where these paths kind of diverge. Right. So in a sense, Trump is punishing Republicans in Congress for not seeing the situation as he sees it for diverging from his view of the best way to win the midterms, which is strategic,

which is restricting voting in a way that could advantage Republicans. But what that suggests, and I'm curious if you agree with this proposition, Michael, is that Trump is saying to Republicans what really matters in these midterms is not policy achievements. It's not getting a big housing bill passed that would show Americans that the Republican Party cares about cost of living. Instead, what the party should prioritize according to the president are restrictions on voting

that could help the party win. He's saying focus on working the election system, not on appealing

“to the hearts and minds of the voters. I think that's a good way to frame it. You know, I covered”

the Trump campaign in 2024 and there was a sense in which he was always much happier to be talking

about these election issues than talking about the economy, talking about affordability, talking about all these things that we now see are of top concern to voters. And we've actually seen that again in the past few days. What are your plans for the housing bill of the president? Where when he's asked about this housing bill, which members of his party are calling a major victory? I don't know. I think it's so unimportant by comparing to the

same American. I think he's dismissing it, saying it's of minor importance, suggesting that it won't actually fix the problem. It's a young country because it's wonderful to me compared to the same American act just about everything is a big young. And so there's a way in which he seems to be leading Republicans in Congress almost twisting in the wind when it comes to policy issues ahead of the midterm elections in November. Well, yeah, just explaining what happens to a bill of

this scale, all that's been passed by both chambers, but that the president doesn't love and says he won't sign. The president could surprise everybody and sign the bill, whether quietly or with the quick signing ceremony at the White House. Right now, that doesn't seem very likely, but with Trump, many things can change. Right. But regardless of what President Trump does, under the Constitution, once the president gets a bill from Congress, a 10-day clock starts to tick. And if he does

nothing when Congress is in session, the bill becomes a lot anyway. And the timeline for that 10-day clock is the end of this week. But there's no signing ceremony. There's no big moment for the cameras. There's no footage to go on cable news and across social media. The bill gets some back to Congress and it becomes a lot. Just kind of limps into law on that 10th day. Yeah, that's the idea. But the other thing that the president could do is veto the bill, send it back to Congress,

and dare Republicans who have been very hesitant to do anything to anger him too much to overwrite

his veto, which would definitely be the first time that a presidential veto was overridden in the

“storm. Yeah. And I think it would actually be a tough decision for a lot of Republicans, even though”

they supported this bill, because if we've been watching anything during this midterm cycle, it's that the president remembers people who have crossed them. And even though these guys really want this housing bill, I think they'd have to make a serious decision about whether to anger the president by rejecting his veto. Well, let's assume for a moment that the likely as path is that perhaps the president simply does nothing and this becomes law without ceremony.

And what would that outcome mean for this bill and for the president's relationship with the Republican leadership in Congress? Well, look, if this bill becomes a lot of regardless of how it happens, this is still a major legislative victory. It's been more than 30 years since Congress has passed major housing legislation. It would still be a major bipartisan victory. And experts say that this

a problem that affects millions of Americans. Right. On the political end, I think that's a bit tricky.

“You know, we've seen in the last several months this rift open between the president and Republicans”

in the Senate, especially. And they've been willing to buck his priorities. You know, we talked about the Iran War vote, but they also essentially made him kill this justice department fund that was supposed to go to the victims of so-called weaponization. They've started making noise about not thinking a lot of his nominees are fitting candidates for office, like the director of national intelligence, like the director of national intelligence, and to some extent Todd Blanche, who Trump

nominated as attorney general, and you're starting to see that these senators who up until this point had really not shown much of an independent streak are starting to get a bit louder about their

“concerns that their priorities and the presidents are diverging. We're in the middle of a”

midterm election cycle, and Republicans want to display unity. They want to say the president, the house, and the Senate were all in the same page, and we're all fighting for the American people. And that signing ceremony was supposed to be a big way for them to demonstrate that they were doing that. But I don't think Republicans are going to look kindly on the president taking away what would have

been a major photo opportunity and a major medium moment for them. We always talk about how the

president doesn't forget slides that members of Congress commit against him. But I don't think that members of Congress would forget this slide against them. Oh, Michael, thank you very much. Always great talking to you, Michael. We'll do it back.

“Here's what else you need to another day.”

The United States honored its 250th birthday over the weekend with close to coast celebrations

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