Providing for the Concurrence By the House in the Senate Amendment to H.R. with Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I am very honored to rise in support of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. I congratulate our full committee chairman, Chairman Hill, for his diligence and ability to find a solution to a very important issue as well to the chair of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, my friend Michael Flood, for his words and just his tenacity in seeing this through.

I also offer special thanks to Ranking Member Waters and as well as the subcommittee chair, Mr. Cleaver, for everything that they have done to find a solution.

America, Mr. Speaker, faces a housing shortage of well over 4 million homes, while only 1.5 million housing units are built each year. It is a big problem. We have a housing supply program. This bill addresses that shortfall and, importantly, expands affordability in homeownership.

Homebuilders tell us their costs are nearly $100,000 before a shovel even hits the dirt due to overregulation, permitting, environmental reviews, and zoning delays. Many can't build a home for less than $250,000.

This bill cuts through the blue tape, I tend to call it, by streamlining bank financing for construction and development loans, giving banks greater flexibility to support new housing, which is so very important. It modernizes zoning guidance to create new housing developments, speeds up environmental and project reviews that too often delay construction for months, if not years, and increase costs.

President Trump and Republicans in Congress and, clearly, many Democrats are determined to address our housing challenges, including preventing institutional investors from owning single-family homes, which is, again, very important. This legislation proves bipartisan and bicameral solutions are actually possible where results matter more than politics.

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Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, all future and existing homeowners throughout the United States will benefit from this bill.

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