Innovation Fund Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 6644) a bill to increase the supply of housing in America, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

America is facing a housing supply shortage that has been years in the making. For too many of our families, the consequences are felt every day through higher home prices, rising rents, and fewer opportunities to achieve homeownership.

Over the last several months, I have worked with our colleagues in both the House and Senate and on both sides of the political aisle to advance practical legislation that addresses this pressing challenge for our American families.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act represents one of the most significant bipartisan housing reforms in recent memory, bringing together commonsense policies to expand housing opportunities and improve affordability for our families.

Mr. Speaker, it cuts unnecessary barriers to new home construction. It modernizes Federal housing programs. It streamlines development processes. It helps create the conditions necessary to build more homes and increase housing supply.

The bill also strengthens the roles of our Main Street community lenders by modernizing outdated banking regulations and allowing banks to more effectively deploy capital in the communities that they serve. These reforms will help community banks focus on what they do best: providing loans to families seeking to purchase a home and financing the construction of new housing.

Importantly, the Senate adopted several key House priorities, including House language that limits institutional investors from outcompeting with American families looking to buy a home. At a time when too many of our families are struggling to purchase a home, this provision helps to ensure that American families have a fair opportunity to achieve that American Dream of homeownership.

Importantly, the House worked with the Senate to ensure that feedback was incorporated to other provisions added in the Senate amendment.

These provisions were the VALID Act, introduced by my great friend in the Senate across the Capitol, Arkansas Senior Senator John Boozman; edits from Ranking Member Waters on the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program; Senator Kennedy's groundbreaking initiative on the Build Now Act; and, importantly, sunsets to the programs offered by the Senate: CDBG-DR, Community Development Block Grant Program for Disaster Recovery, and the PRICE Act.

We focused on improving HUD accountability to benefit both our residents in our districts and taxpayers. This final product advances practical bipartisan and bicameral solutions to modernize Federal housing programs, reduce regulatory burdens, streamline the development process, and help build more homes to meet that growing demand and keep the American Dream within reach.

This bicameral, bipartisan bill before us today reflects ideas from both Chambers and demonstrates what can be accomplished when Congress focuses on solving problems for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, this is Congress working at its best, tackling the challenges of the American people, offering solutions, and having those enacted into law. I am proud to support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Flood), who is the chair of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee and has been the leader on building consensus on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), the vice chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Haridopolos), who is our vice chairman and whip of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Moore), who is a distinguished member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that the work has been extraordinary between the majority and the minority in this House in answering the call for solutions from the American people. I think Mr. Cleaver said it best talking about his own experience within his own family in east Texas: We always had a home, but we just didn't always have a house to put it in.

Let that hang in this room, Mr. Speaker, because that is the spirit in which both sides of the aisle have worked to find solutions today.

We couldn't do it without our staff. I thank the majority and the minority staff from both sides of the aisle who helped us get to where we are today.

Mr. Speaker, as referenced in the previous colloquy that I had with the ranking member when we were on the floor a few weeks ago, we believe there are several points the Treasury should consider as it evaluates the congressional intent in implementing section 1001 of this bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

Entities organized as nonprofits under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that are exempt from taxation under section 501(a), as well as community land trusts, as defined in the Cranston- Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act and amended by our bill today, should not be included in the definition of a large institutional investor.

It is also Congress' intent that nothing in the act should be construed to require a large institutional investor to divest or sell any home purchased before or after enactment.

The term, Madam Speaker, ``single-family home'' was also not intended to include property that when occupied is rented to a member of the Armed Forces or a member of the National Guard as defined in section 101 of title 10 of the U.S. Code.

Similarly, section 1001 should not reduce the supply of essential rental housing in our communities and should exclude student housing leased by bedroom to unrelated individuals under separate agreements.

Similarly, homes purchased by mortgage servicers for loss mitigation reasons following a foreclosure, not as long-term investments, should remain permissible when the mortgage is federally backed, as defined in section 4022(a) of the CARES Act, and the servicer first offers a first-look period to the owner-occupant or a nonprofit approved by the relevant Federal agency.

However, the bill prohibits large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes by participating in homeownership programs that do not meet the criteria under the act.

For build-to-rent programs, this exemption should apply when an investor purchases, constructs, or constructs and retains a single- family home for rental use, whether in a community comprised entirely of renter-occupied single-family homes or in a mixed community of owner- and renter-occupied homes. Clarifying this distinction is essential to carrying out the intent of the House and Senate in this bill.

Additionally, purchases of homes used to provide residential care for individuals with disabilities or developmental disabilities or in senior living communities should be exempt as these are unrelated to the problem being addressed by the act.

The same is true for the exemption of homes purchased with support from programs described in section 42 of the IRS code or participating in Federal or other affordable housing programs where rents are restricted.

Congress also intended exemptions for homes acquired as a part of a community of five or more contiguous rental units, and homes planned, permitted, financed, and constructed as a part of a unified rental community on a single platted parcel that are not intended for individual sale, as well as properties that are made up of multiple rental homes or units constructed on a single parcel of property that cannot be legally sold as individual homes or the units without further subdividing the property.

The ranking member and I recognize that these regulations issued by the Treasury will be necessary to implement various aspects of the act that we debate today.

The overall reaching goal of section 1001 is to expand the number of single-family homes available for purchase by individual households.

Regulations that do not meet that objective will fall short of congressional intent and risk reducing, not increasing, the availability and affordability of housing across our great country.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for her partnership on this housing bill that is groundbreaking, historic, and that is the first time in decades that the two Chambers have come together to make measurable, accountable changes that will benefit the American people in both accessibility, the construction of more units, and the affordability that our families so richly need and deserve over these past years of recently high inflation, particularly. I thank her for her partnership.

Madam Speaker, I will also say that I have talked to community development and housing refinancing people in Little Rock, and they all tell me that this is so overdue. I thank the gentlewoman for her passion in getting this done. Whether it is in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, or Helena, Arkansas, or St.

Louis, Missouri, or Los Angeles, California, or Little Rock, Arkansas, we are also, in this bill, holding HUD accountable.

HUD has a responsibility for safe, clean, and effective housing for the tenants dependent on their programs. Not only are we building supply and improving affordability, we are also in a bipartisan, bicameral basis holding the Department of Housing and Urban Development accountable.

Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6644, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, sponsored by Chairman Hill and myself.

This bill represents the most significant housing reform package in decades and will finally get America back on track to building affordable housing.

Our bill includes dozens of bipartisan provisions to build new housing, lower mortgage and rental costs, expand homeownership, modernize Federal housing programs, prioritize home buyers and renters over corporate landlords, and support community bankers that finance affordable housing development and mortgages each day.

This final bill marks the culmination of numerous hearings, markups, votes, creative input from committee Democrats, and tough negotiations across both sides the aisle and the Capitol.

This bill speaks to the real change that our constituents have been demanding, where everyone can afford a dignified place to call home, where tenants are protected, and where working Americans can finally get ahead.

As a reminder of who we are trying to help and what is at stake, let's review the facts. The average cost of a single-family home has skyrocketed, and wages have not kept pace. The median age of a first- time home buyer is 40 years old. Rents have soared by nearly 47 percent since before the pandemic. Not surprisingly, 42 million American households are cost-burdened, and most shamefully, 800,000 people experience homelessness on any given night. Our country must do better, and today we will do better by passing H.R. 6644.

I have said since day one that housing must be a national priority. That is why I thank Chairman Hill for his partnership. This will be the third time this Congress has passed housing reform legislation, and each time, the bill has gotten better and better.

I also commend Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver, Chairman Flood, along with our committee Democrats and Senators Warren and Scott for coming together on this historic bipartisan and bicameral bill.

By working together, we will deliver a stronger, more impactful legislative package to be signed into law, one with more practical solutions and affordable housing opportunities for American families than before.

This comprehensive package incorporates over 50 housing and banking provisions championed by House Democrats. It will lay the groundwork for the development of new, affordable homes all across America and create new pathways to homeownership. The bill will reduce unnecessary barriers to housing development, expand financing for housing and community investment, and support the development of innovative housing like modular homes and accessory dwelling units. It creates databases for available publicly owned

lands so communities know where they can build.

The bill provides a range of new protections for renters, including a hotline to file complaints with HUD and corporate landlords. The bill increases access to smaller-dollar mortgages under $100,000, and the bill, finally, codifies the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program, which will help expedite flexible funding to communities seeking to rebuild homes after major disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.

H.R. 6644 also supports thousands of community lenders, including community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions, so they can more affordably finance home buyers and housing developers.

Importantly, this bill includes the House language to responsibly rein in corporate landlords by banning large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes but without halting construction of new rental housing or evicting families in the middle of a housing crisis. Tenants will have a national resource center to file grievances about corporate landlords, to which HUD will respond, and large institutional investors will be publicly named in an annual report along with the number and location of their properties.

I am very proud of this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to join me in this first step to finally addressing our Nation's affordable housing crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), who authored several bills in this legislation, including H.R. 1981, the Choice in Affordable Housing Act; H.R. 5878, the HOME Reform Act; and H.R. 5938, the Innovation Fund Act.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), who is a strong advocate for affordable and public housing.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), who authored several bills in this legislation, including H.R. 8291, the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act, and H.R. 3716, the Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Himes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

Mrs. Beatty authored H.R. 2031, the HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Improvement Act, and H.R. 3709, the Advancing the Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), who authored H.R. 6768, the Housing Our Communities Act, which is included in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), who is a strong advocate for affordable housing and a former member of our committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Hill for working with me to clarify the intent behind this section. I agree with what Mr. Hill has described on the congressional intent for section 1001.

Madam Speaker, for years I have fought hard to make housing affordable, but for many years, it was hard to prioritize housing in both Democratic and Republican-led Houses.

It is for that reason, I am deeply grateful for Chairman Hill who worked so closely with me to write H.R. 6644 and prioritize it in our committee and in this House. Together, we found compromise that had previously proven so difficult. I hope that this partnership can continue to deliver for America because we still have a lot of work to do.

Madam Speaker, I also thank both of our staffs on the committee because without their hard work, this bill would not likely be here before us today.

This legislation must serve as a foundation for continued action, not the final step in addressing our Nation's housing crisis. We must build on this progress and continue to advocate and secure the resources our communities critically need.

Madam Speaker, I dedicate our work to some of the people in public housing who will have an opportunity now to help understand how their communities can be improved. In my district, Nickerson Gardens, Jordan Downs, Gonzack Village, Imperial Courts, and Avalon Gardens, I thank them for what I have learned. To my home in St. Louis, Missouri, where I was born, I thank those who lived and died in bond projects in Pruitt-Igoe and those projects where they had a difficult time many years ago. We are now leading to a point where we will be able to make all of those projects more livable. We will be able to have the constituents in those projects understand how their lives can be bettered.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I start by thanking our chairman, French Hill, who has shouldered the burden of helping us get this through Congress, together with our Ranking Member Waters, my colleague Emanuel Cleaver from Kansas City, myself, and all the staff that have made this happen.

At this hour, across our land, the mayor of San Diego is celebrating as is the executive director of the Huntsville, Alabama, Habitat for Humanity; the mayor of Columbus, Ohio; and plenty of folks in Nebraska and everywhere in between, because what we have here is a comprehensive, bicameral, bipartisan solution.

When I started in this role in the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, I knew this was the number one issue in my district. Housing supply is not keeping up with demand. Tara Vasicek, the city administrator from Columbus, a city of approximately 25,000 people in Platte County, Nebraska, testified in our first Housing and Insurance Subcommittee hearing that the lack of affordable housing directly impacts economic growth, workforce attraction, and retention.

The mayor of the largest city in my district, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, 300,000 people strong, believes so strongly in the need for affordable housing and supply that she set an ambitious goal of 5,000 units by the end of this decade.

As we wrote this bill, we thought about them and everybody else; and Mr. Cleaver and I welcomed literally hundreds of suggestions from across the country. They weren't blue ideas or red ideas. We have a lot more in common than we have opposite.

I want to read you something from the Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton. This is from No. 70. This really talks about the process. Now mind you, we had Republicans and Democrats united in the House working with Republicans and Democrats, a different version, in the Senate. Alexander Hamilton wrote: ``In the legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a benefit. The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in that department of the government, though they may sometimes obstruct salutary plans, yet often promote deliberation and circumspection, and serve to check excesses in the majority.''

This bill was a product of the process that Hamilton described. There were differences of opinions and jarrings of parties, I would say jarrings of Chambers, but the final bill is stronger as a result of this long and deliberative process.

It is my honor to have been a part of it. I thank again our chairman, our ranking member, and my counterpart, Emanuel Cleaver, for their work on this bill. I thank President Trump for identifying this as a major issue in September of 2025. I also want to send a special thank you to the leadership of this Chamber: our Speaker, our majority leader, and our whip. Without them, this would not be a bicameral, bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, as Chairman Flood has previously stated, bipartisanship is more than just a policy. A genuinely bipartisan effort is defined not only by the substance of the policy but also by the process that meaningfully incorporates input from both parties.

Mr. Speaker, I have been here quite a while, and believe me, there are always reasons not to work with the other side: the President, elections, political strategy, or policy disagreements. Americans, though, at this particular time are looking for those who can deliver results, despite these changing but ever-present realities.

I commend the leadership of Chairman Hill; Ranking Member Waters; my counterpart, Chairman Flood; and our colleagues in the Senate on this bipartisan legislation.

Since our Nation's founding, the ability to own land and a home has been closely tied to the promise of freedom, responsibility, and opportunity.

As this Nation turns 250, it is our responsibility to preserve that promise for the next generations. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is an important step in that direction.

This legislation strengthens existing programs, improves coordination among regulators, encourages governments to address local barriers to housing supply, and includes key banking reforms, including raising the public welfare investment cap to unlock billions in private capital.

I thank the hundreds of national organizations and everyone who was involved in this effort, especially Chairman Flood, Ranking Member Waters, Chairman Hill, and Senators Scott and Warren on their very, very difficult work in the Senate.

Chairman Flood has talked about housing is personal, and he is absolutely right. We all have our American stories. Mine began in a little shack in Texas without running water and electricity.

I have to say this, and I wish my dad were here to hear me say it: Our family was poor, but we always had a home. We just didn't have a house to put it in.

My main goal in coming to Congress was to ensure that a family in America can work hard and afford a safe, decent house in which to deposit their home. I am proud to stand with my colleagues in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, as someone who grew up in the Old Colony Housing Projects in South Boston, Massachusetts, and as a cofounder of the Affordable Housing Caucus along with Reverend Emanuel Cleaver, Greg Meeks, and Ritchie Torres, I am proud to join my colleagues, French Hill from Arkansas; the gentlewoman from California, Maxine Waters; Chairman Flood; and Reverend Emanuel Cleaver from Kansas City in rising in support of this bill, which while it does not solve every issue we have today with housing in this country, it does a lot.

It stops the commoditization of housing by real estate companies and private equity firms that would compete with families in acquiring their first home.

I realize it took a lot of work across the aisle. I congratulate our colleagues in the Senate, as well, for the work that they have done. We have got to do a lot more. We have got to bring the cost of housing down, and we have got to increase the supply of housing. We are about 7 million units short here--7 million homes short in the United States.

This is a good start. It is a good start, and it is a collaboration between Republicans and Democrats on one of those elements of the American Dream that is undeniable and that is shared in red States as well as blue States.

Again, I congratulate all of my colleagues on working together on this. It shows you what we can do in this country when we work together. I look forward to the next iteration of this bill, as well.