Washington — A major housing package took effect automatically at midnight Saturday after President Trump refused to sign the measure, saying he was withholding his signature to object to the Senate’s failure to advance an elections bill known as the SAVE America Act.
The bipartisan legislation, called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, represents the most sweeping federal housing measure in decades. Supporters say it is designed to expand the nation’s housing supply and ease costs, in part by placing limits on institutional investors buying certain single-family homes.
Trump had been expected to sign the bill during a Capitol Hill ceremony last month, after both chambers of Congress passed it with broad bipartisan margins. Instead, he canceled the bill signing just hours before it was scheduled to take place and warned he would not approve the measure unless Congress passed the SAVE America Act, which would create new requirements for voting and voter registration.
On Friday morning, the president again said he did not intend to sign the housing legislation.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” the president posted on Truth Social.
Under the Constitution, legislation passed by the House and Senate becomes law without the president’s signature if it is not signed or vetoed within 10 days, not counting Sundays.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the Democratic lawmaker who led the push for the bill in the Senate, sharply condemned Trump’s decision not to sign it.
“At the stroke of midnight, a huge bipartisan bill to lower housing costs became law without the President’s signature. Why did President Trump sit on the landmark housing bill for more than 2 weeks? Maybe because there was nothing in it for him personally — no gold-encrusted ballroom, no Qatari jet, no $2 billion crypto deal. Nothing in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing except ways to make housing more affordable,” she said in a statement. “Donald Trump couldn’t pick up the pen because he just isn’t interested in lowering costs for American families.”
The president’s decision put his Republican allies in Congress in a difficult position, depriving them of an opportunity to tout their efforts to address concerns about affordability that have remained top of mind for Americans. And despite pressure from the president in recent months, Senate GOP leaders have repeatedly stated that the elections bill does not have enough support to pass.
The housing bill’s passage came after months of work and represented a rare moment of bipartisan consensus ahead of the midterm elections. But the president called the bill “a yawn,” while making clear that he wants the focus to be on his push to ban voting by mail, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot.
Despite the president’s refusal to sign the bill, he also didn’t veto it, allowing it to become law automatically. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who met with the president multiple times on the issue late last month, sent the bill to the president on June 29, starting the 10-day clock.
That day, when asked what he planned to do about the housing bill, Mr. Trump told reporters he didn’t know, adding, “I think it’s so unimportant” in comparison to the SAVE America Act.
A day later, Johnson responded to Mr. Trump’s comments by saying that “the president has a lot going on and I think it’s safe to say he’s not read through every line of that piece of legislation.”
The Louisiana Republican said there’s “a lot to it and a lot of great things,” and added that he and the president had “spoken about it quite a bit.”
“What he was saying is in comparison to ensuring election integrity, which is now represented by the SAVE America Act, nothing is as important,” Johnson said. “That’s not to say that there are not also incredibly important issues, and the cost of living and affordability is among them. It’s top of mind.”
Johnson ultimately expressed confidence that the bill would become law, noting that he had encouraged the president to sign it with “the fattest black marker you have,” while telling him the results of the legislation “are going to be very, very good for the American people.”
“So I hope he does sign it. If he doesn’t, it’s still law; we’ll still celebrate it,” Johnson said. “But he’s trying to make a point and I think he’s making it very effectively.”
What the housing law does
The new law includes more than 45 provisions, many of which are aimed at increasing development of affordable housing by removing regulatory barriers and streamlining environmental reviews. It also launches a pilot program to aid local governments in converting vacant commercial buildings into affordable housing, unlocks more federal funding for the construction of factory-built homes and eliminates a rule that requires homes to be built on a chassis — a steel framework used to transport them.
In addition, it creates an innovation fund for communities that are increasing their housing supply, supports housing opportunities for veterans and limits the purchases of single-family homes by institutional investors.
The institutional-investor limits are aimed at cutting competition to benefit homebuyers, supporters say. And applying to existing single-family homes, rather than new construction, the law preserves incentives for financial firms to invest in new housing construction.
