The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at boosting housing supply across the country on a 89-10 vote on Thursday, the first major housing legislation to pass through the chamber in more than a decade.
It still has a long path to becoming law. The Senate’s vote tees up a fight with the House, which passed its own version of the housing bill in February that includes several provisions omitted by the Senate. Republican members of the House insisted in the lead-up to the Senate’s vote that the Senate needed to make dramatic changes to the legislation — which it did not — or agree to a conference to proceed.
“We’re in the middle of a housing crisis, and finally, Congress is going to do something about it. We’re actually going to increase housing supply and beat back private equity,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who spearheaded the bill alongside Sen. Tim Scott, told NOTUS minutes before its final passage.