Rare Unanimity on Senate Panel Advances Housing Affordability Bill

Can Congress make housing more affordable? That’s the question that a new, bipartisan bill seeks to answer. The legislation was passed unanimously out of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday by a vote of 24-0. 

The legislation, cosponsored by an unlikely duo, Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., hopes to address the hurdles government has placed in the way of building new housing. Scott and Warren are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the committee.

“[S]o many Americans are frustrated by the rising costs of housing, and it seems to be a problem that is so elusive that no one seems to find, not a solution to it—because there’s not a solution to it—but even a step in the direction of solving a problem that is so persistent, so pervasive, that every place in the nation consistently deals with the struggle of increasing supply and lowering prices at the same time,” Scott said on Tuesday.

According to the committee, the panel’s work on Tuesday was the first bipartisan housing markup in more than a decade. 

One of the components of the bill, the Renewing Opportunity in the American dream (ROAD) to Housing Act of 2025, is improving financial literacy by permitting the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assess the performance of housing counseling agencies and counselors and to even revoke their certifications. 

The bill also seeks to boost construction in the economically distressed areas that have been designated as Opportunity Zones. It also hopes to spur more private investment in low-income housing projects by increasing a statutory cap limiting banks’ investments in these projects. It also changes HUD’s definition of manufactured housing to also include modular or prefabricated housing units. 

The legislation also instructs HUD to assess and possibly revise the loan limits for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily mortgage insurance programs, given the increased demand for houses and the greater expense for some construction costs. The Scott-Warren bill also attempts to provide more coordination among federal homelessness programs. 

“At my first committee meeting as ranking member, I said I would work with any member—Republican or Democrat—to lower costs for American families,” Warren said of the legislation.

“This bill is an example of that commitment. I’m proud to have worked with Chairman Scott on the first bipartisan housing legislation to move through the Banking Committee in over a decade. And I want to thank the chairman for his extraordinary leadership on this issue. I also want to thank the chairman’s staff for the endless hours they put in behind the scenes to help make this bill a reality,” the Massachusetts Democrat continued.

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