A large-scale bill to expand the supply of dwellings, handled on a bipartisan basis in Congress to ease the United States' severe housing shortage, hit a snag after President Donald Trump suddenly decided to withhold his signature. Trump said he would delay signing the bill, saying the Republican-backed so-called "voter ID law" must be handled first.
On the 24th (local time), Trump canceled the signing ceremony at the White House for the "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act."
On Truth Social, a social media platform, Trump said, "The press conference and signing ceremony related to dwellings supply are canceled until the 'SAVE America Act' (voter eligibility protection law, hereinafter the SAVE Act), which I consider a national emergency, passes."
The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and sharply restricts mail-in voting, so it is also called a "voter ID law." Trump has long argued that Democrats exploited a lax electoral system to commit election fraud, and he says passage of this bill is essential for a Republican victory in the November midterms.
By contrast, the dwellings supply expansion bill is a representative bipartisan measure jointly pursued by Republicans and Democrats to ease housing costs. It streamlines various permitting processes, including environmental impact assessments, to speed up dwellings construction; expands local governments' authority to review dwellings construction; and limits additional purchases by corporations that own more than 350 single-family dwellings.
Earlier, the Senate passed the bill on the 22nd with 85 votes in favor and 5 against, and the House passed it on the 23rd with 358 in favor and 32 against. The bill's passage is seen as the result of both parties' interests aligning to ease voters' housing costs ahead of the midterms. Republicans, amid falling job-approval ratings for Trump due to recent inflation and an economic slowdown, sought to tout alleviating the housing crunch as a policy achievement, while Democrats actively cooperated because the bill would limit large real estate investment corporations' bulk purchases of dwellings and reduce the housing burden on the middle class.