Aerial view of two-story single-family homes lining a street in Thousand Oaks, California, on January 14, 2026.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
House lawmakers on Monday approved a series of bills aimed at increasing housing affordability by loosening regulations on home construction and giving incentives to builders and local governments to boost construction.
The bill received strong bipartisan support, with the House voting 390-9 in favor. A similar bill passed in the Senate last year, also on a bipartisan vote. This, along with President Donald Trump’s focus on housing affordability, means the bill has momentum to pass by the end of the year.
“There is nothing more personal to Americans than the opportunity to own a home,” Rep. Mike Flood (R-Nebraska) told reporters on Monday. “When you ask people what their central goal in life is, mom and dad work 55 hours a week, overtime and everything else…the idea is, how do we get into the house?”
The bill includes a number of provisions, including reductions in housing and environmental regulations related to home construction. Local communities could obtain grants to make life easier for builders by providing pre-vetted home designs and streamlining construction and housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development also plans to develop best practices for zoning guidelines.
The definitions for manufactured and modular homes will be updated to encourage the growth of factory-built homes, which can be constructed in a fraction of the time compared to more traditional home construction methods.
The bill would also provide support to community banks. One change would allow banks to accept more custody deposits and mutual deposits, which could allow banks to offer more mortgages to potential homeowners. Other changes could make it easier to form new banks and change the FDIC’s view of bank mergers.
The Senate bill does not include many community bank provisions and would create more programs than the House bill. The Senate passed the bill last year as part of a larger defense package, but as a standalone bill it has received significant bipartisan support, including support from Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (South Carolina) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the committee’s top Democrat.
These bills have received unusually high bipartisan support. The Senate bill passed unanimously in committee, with all 24 senators voting in favor. A House committee passed the bill on a 50-1 vote in December.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who sponsored the bill, warned that the bill would be ineffective if housing programs continued to be underfunded.
“Policy reform alone is not enough,” Waters said. “For these programs to be effective, they need funding.”
House Financial Services Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) said it was a “common goal” for him and Scott to get the housing bill across the finish line. Hill said he would work with the Senate to identify common ground and come to an agreement on a bill that could be sent to President Trump’s desk.
Flood said he is optimistic about passage this year.
“We’re at a point where we’re doing something really big here, and everyone wants to be a part of it,” he said. “This is not pushing an agenda trying to convince the public of anything. The White House has ideas. The Senate has ideas. The House has ideas.”
What the bill does not include is a formalization of President Trump’s proposal to ban large investors from purchasing homes. Hill noted that other lawmakers have introduced bills based on Trump’s idea, and said it could become a reality if there is agreement in the House and Senate.
