Congress passes largest housing affordability bill in decades

The House on Tuesday passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by a 358-32 vote, sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk one day after the Senate approved it 85-5. The bill is now positioned as the largest housing package likely to become law in decades.

The legislation runs more than 50 provisions deep and was built to increase housing supply, reduce housing costs, streamline environmental reviews, and give the Department of Housing and Urban Development new guidance authority on zoning and land-use reform. It also includes provisions aimed at manufactured housing and other affordable-housing financing, putting federal policy squarely into the market for lower-cost homes.

The measure emerged from bipartisan, bicameral negotiations led in the Senate by Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott and in the House by Maxine Waters and French Hill. Housing-policy advocates have cast it as a rare bipartisan breakthrough after years of work, and as the most sweeping federal housing package in a generation.

The congressional action landed alongside a separate political signal in New York City, where all three candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their primaries. Brad Lander defeated Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District, Claire Valdez beat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the open 7th District, and Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated 10-year Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District. Mamdani, who was sworn in as mayor on January 1, 2026, saw the results as the first major test of his political influence.

Taken together, the bill and the primaries point to the same pressure in national politics: voters and lawmakers are demanding more aggressive action on housing costs, even as the tools available in Washington remain limited. Congress can push financing, reviews, and federal guidance, but the new law still depends on state and local decisions to translate ambition into more units and lower rents. The Mamdani-backed wins suggest that message is resonating in Democratic primaries, where affordability politics is colliding with a broader fight over the party’s direction.