Congress is poised to deliver what Republicans have desperately needed: a legislative victory on affordability. A sweeping housing bill that bridged ideological chasms is heading for Senate passage this week, with a House vote to follow before reaching President Trump's desk.
The measure advanced on an 87-8 Senate vote last week, a lopsided margin that underscores how rare genuine bipartisan consensus has become on Capitol Hill. The coalition behind it reads like a political odd couple: conservative Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. In the House, Republican French Hill and Democrat Maxine Waters authored a version that somehow pleased both camps.
For the GOP, the timing could not be more urgent. Polling shows the party's midterm prospects have cratered as voters grow impatient with Trump and Republican leadership on kitchen-table costs. An AP-NORC survey found Trump's job approval standing at just 37%, with his economic approval even worse at 33%. A concrete legislative win on housing affordability could help stanch that bleeding before voters head to the polls.
The bill delivers to each side what it wanted. Republicans secured provisions to slash regulatory red tape and expand housing supply. Democrats championed language that would curb institutional investors and private equity firms from buying single-family homes en masse, directly addressing Trump's own State of the Union pledge to prevent "large Wall Street investment firms" from snapping up properties.
The deal emerged after months of grinding negotiations between House and Senate negotiators who endured frustration over Trump's erratic signals. But they ultimately found common ground.
The problem for Republicans hoping to capitalize on this achievement: Trump has moved on to other spectacles. His on-again, off-again Iran deal negotiations have consumed White House news cycles and drawn unusual blowback from his own party. Simultaneously, his decision to let the FISA Section 702 surveillance program expire, coupled with his demand to stall his own nominee for director of national intelligence, has created fresh tumult on Capitol Hill. Add to that the public focus on his costly and stalled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, and the GOP finds itself unable to command sustained attention for a legislative accomplishment.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled the party's hope that the bill would anchor the narrative around competence on costs. "It's about increasing the supply of housing in this country and making it more affordable," Thune said before last week's vote, "and I think that is something that the American people want to see us working on."
Even as the housing bill moves toward Trump's signature, the White House remains consumed by diplomatic and surveillance tangles that have pulled the spotlight away from a domestic win the party cannot afford to squander.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This is exactly the kind of bipartisan win Republicans needed to show voters they can govern on real issues, but Trump's talent for creating competing crises means it'll be buried in the news cycle by morning."
Comments