In Case You Missed It

In a joint op-ed in The Hill, House Committee on Financial Services Chairman French Hill (AR-02) and Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance Chairman Mike Flood (NE-01) outline the significance of the Housing for the 21st Century Act coming to the House Floor next Monday. The bill will bring the American Dream within reach again by expanding housing supply, lowering costs, and giving families more options.

Read the Chairman’s full piece here.

For generations, owning a home has been the milestone many Americans have equated with achieving the American Dream — a place to call our own, where we can put down roots and build a future. Unfortunately, that dream has grown increasingly out of reach. Housing supply has not kept pace with demand and years of inflationary policies under the Biden administration drove up the costs of borrowing, pushing homeownership further from reality for millions of American families.

As President Trump recently said, “America will not become a nation of renters,” and under his leadership, the American people are finally seeing relief in the form of lower taxes, higher wages, and strong, sustained economic growth. Gas prices are down, inflation is running lower and mortgage rates are trending down. Despite this success, there’s more work to be done.  

The problem is straightforward: housing supply has not kept pace with demand, leaving the nation short by as many as 5.5 million units. That shortage didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t fix itself. Rising construction costs, regulatory delays, outdated zoning constraints, and burdensome federal processes have fueled this problem and made it harder, slower, and more expensive to build. At the same time, small and mid-sized community banks — those that fund new construction loans — are struggling to provide the necessary financing due to government red tape.

The result is a housing market that works against the very people it should serve.  

Solving this challenge requires a straightforward approach: build more homes and remove the barriers standing in the way. That means expanding supply across the board — single-family homes, multifamily housing, apartment complexes, and modern factory-built homes — while ensuring the financing needed to make those projects possible. The bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act does exactly that, and we look forward to this bill coming to the House floor for a vote next week.

For too long, regulatory barriers have slowed construction and driven up costs. Builders face years of permitting delays before construction can even begin. Our bill streamlines approvals by allowing pre-approved home designs so builders can get permits faster and build homes quicker. It also simplifies federal and local housing processes to give rural and urban communities the tools they need to build more homes faster.

To further streamline development and drive down costs, our bill modernizes outdated Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs. Manufactured and factory-built homes are an important part of the affordability puzzle, but federal rules have not kept up. This bill modernizes those standards, puts HUD clearly in charge, and fixes the HOME Program so states and cities have more flexibility, fewer hoops to jump through, and more time to get homes built.

Finally, the bill tackles an important roadblock to housing: financing. Without loans, homes don’t get built, and community and regional banks play a critical role in this. The Housing for the 21st Century Act cuts red tape, tailors regulatory compliance requirements and helps banks access stable funding so they can do what they do best: lend locally and support their communities.

Bottom line, when there aren’t enough homes, prices go up. The Housing for the 21st Century Act includes real, bipartisan solutions to boost development by clearing out red tape and letting communities and local banks to their job. That’s how we expand supply, lower costs and give families more options.