Housing for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Louisiana.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of the ROAD to Housing Act. I grew up in northeast Pennsylvania, in a town called Bloomsburg, believing in a simple deal: You work hard, you play by the rules, and you can build a life in your own home. But that promise--the American dream--has become increasingly out of reach to families across our great Commonwealth. There are too few homes to buy and too many aging homes that families can't afford to maintain.

The numbers tell a clear and disturbing story. Pennsylvania is short about 100,000 homes today. That is the same number of seats as we see here in Penn State's Beaver Stadium. Median home prices have hit an alltime high of $325,000, rent has surged, and more than half our housing stock in Pennsylvania is over 50 years old, which means greater repair costs for homeowners already struggling with tight, tight budgets.

The absence of good, new, affordable housing has locked out young families. When I was a teenager, the median age of a first-time homeowner was 29--29 years old. Today, it is 40--40 years old. That is an entire decade of home ownership and wealth building that has been lost by a generation.

Now, American families didn't create this problem; Washington did. Major Federal housing programs had been funded for decades without serious reform. Some hadn't been updated since the 1960s. The Biden administration had 4 years to address this crisis, and instead, we got more bureaucracies, more mandates, and reckless spending that drove this problem off the cliff.

From the row houses of Philadelphia to the small towns of the Monongahela Valley, home prices across Pennsylvania have risen more than 75 percent--75 percent--since 2020. Nationally, the average monthly mortgage payment is over $1,000 higher than when President Biden took office.

Just last year, I visited Bedford Dwellings in Pittsburgh's historic Hill District with HUD Secretary Turner, and we spoke with great Pennsylvanians who feel that the American dream is increasingly out of reach. I hear this feedback everywhere I travel across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This is a big problem, it is an unacceptable problem, and it is time for a new direction.

President Trump's leadership is lowering housing costs for American families. He cut redtape in permitting and construction, and he directed key Agencies to keep Wall Street out of the starter home market. And he delivered the most significant Federal investment in affordable housing in decades via the Working Families Tax Cut Act. But today--today--the Senate has an opportunity to build on this progress, with serious bipartisan support, by passing the ROAD to Housing Act.

This important bill advances three goals: First, build more. The act cuts the redtape, lowers costs, and speeds up zoning and permitting. Second, fix what we have. Grants and forgivable loans are provided to low-income homeowners for repairs, for helping to preserve home values, and to help stabilize neighborhoods. Third, empower communities, not the bureaucrats. Local leaders are empowered to make decisions that fit their towns. The Federal Government should be a partner, not a gatekeeper.

Guided by these three principles, the ROAD to Housing Act represents the most consequential Federal action on housing in a generation. Let me repeat that: the most consequential Federal action on housing in a generation. Passing through the Banking Committee with a unanimous 24- to-0 vote--Republicans and Democrats alike--is also proof that the Senate can address important issues in a bipartisan way.

I am particularly proud of the amendments my friend and colleague Senator Fetterman and I champion together. They protect Pennsylvania workers, Pennsylvania veterans, and Pennsylvania homeowners. For example, I was the lead or colead on six provisions that will help ensure Pennsylvanians, including our 800,000 veterans, can afford good homes without the risk of falling through the cracks.

The bill in my provisions also empower Pennsylvania's community lenders. There is a scene in the iconic movie ``It's a Wonderful Life'' where George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart--Jimmy Stewart, by the way, was a native of my dad's hometown Indiana, PA. In that movie, he fights to save the Bailey Building & Loan. This was a community lender in the fictional town of Bedford Falls that knew every borrower by name and made the mortgages that helped ordinary people own homes. That model once helped build a wonderful life for generations of Americans, but we have regulated so heavily that community lenders who want to serve their neighbors can't make the math work.

My friends, home ownership for most young families should not exist only in the movies. It should exist in Bloomsburg and Bedford and Braddock and in every Pennsylvania community where a local lender knows the borrower and wants to say yes. This bill--this bill--makes important steps in that direction.

And one more thing: The ROAD to Housing Act builds on President Trump's efforts and takes on Wall Street landlords competing directly with first-time home buyers for single-family homes. The housing market should work for Main Street, not for Wall Street.

So for all of these reasons, I am proud to stand in support of the ROAD to Housing Act. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote yes. Vote yes and make the American dream of home ownership possible again for the next generation of Pennsylvanians.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source