Congress
Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, taking aim at GOP
President Donald Trump said Friday he would not sign Congress’ much-awaited bipartisan housing affordability legislation — protesting lawmakers’ inaction on his preferred elections bill, the SAVE America Act.
The House formally transmitted the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to Trump last week, setting in motion a 10-day period after which the bill would be enacted into law absent any action from the president. Trump did not indicate plans to veto the legislation, which is expected to become law at midnight between Friday and Saturday.
“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,” Trump posted Friday morning on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump last month abruptly called off signing the landmark housing legislation in part over his dissatisfaction with Congress’ progress on the unrelated voter registration bill. On Friday, the president reiterated that he blamed lawmakers from his own party for holding up the SAVE America Act.
“I will no longer be able to call [the Democrats] Dumocrats again!” Trump’s post reads. “The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself!”
A White House spokesperson declined to provide additional comment. Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leadership, along with White House officials, all worked over the last 10 days to try to persuade Trump not to veto the bill, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversations who were granted anonymity to speak openly.
Johnson said in an interview shortly before he officially transmitted the bill to the White House that he was still trying to persuade Trump to sign the legislation. But, he added that Trump would not veto it.
House GOP leadership had also conveyed to the White House that they had the votes to override him if he chose to veto it, and that congressional Republicans would do it, as POLITICO has reported.
Despite Trump’s apparent disinterest in the bill, the legislation marks one of the most significant bipartisan achievements during a session of Congress marked by gridlock and chaos.
The legislation passed by overwhelming margins in both the Senate and House following monthslong negotiations among the two chambers, White House and industry. Lawmakers on both sides are touting the legislation as a direct response to voters’ affordability concerns ahead of the midterm elections.
The law contains almost 60 provisions, including the first-ever restrictions on the ability of large Wall Street investors to buy up single-family homes. Trump made the provision a condition for his support of the bill. The measure would prohibit large, institutional investors from owning more than 350 single-family homes.
The housing law includes a wide range of other measures, including language that aims to eliminate red tape for community lenders, leverage federal funding to incentivize communities to build additional housing and make it easier to build manufactured homes in an effort to boost supply and cut some costs.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Senate Republicans are discussing whether to call up a data center utility costs bill as they make plans to stay in Washington next week rather than beat an early exit before the midterms.
Two GOP aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Senate will remain in town amid pressure from some corners of the party to send members home early to campaign.
Asked if the Senate will stay next week, Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday it’s “looking that way.”
While some lawmakers had hoped to move a long-brewing bipartisan energy permitting deal, those hopes have evaporated, and GOP leaders are instead eyeing votes on the Ratepayer Protection Act — a top priority of endangered Ohio Sen. Jon Husted.
Thune said Thursday moving to the data-center-focused bill next week “is an option.” The Senate is also expected to take up a Democratic resolution condemning the Iran war and several presidential nominations.
The Ratepayer Protection Act easily passed the House earlier this month, but some Senate Democrats are arguing it does not go far enough and party leaders could be motivated to deny Husted a pre-election win.
Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
A bipartisan group of senators failed to close a long-sought deal on legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects, kicking consideration of the issue until after the midterm elections.
A senior Democrat aide familiar with the negotiations and granted anonymity to discuss the matter told Blue Light News on Thursday that Senate Democrats don’t think there’s enough time to get it done.
“The goal here has always been to pass permitting reform, not just to introduce it,” the aide said.
Top negotiators — Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), along with Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee and ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — were unable to reach agreement on a package this week, despite recent overtures made by both sides.
The lack of a deal now means a permitting bill likely won’t get a vote until after the elections, when lawmakers are expected to face a packed legislative agenda and the power dynamics in Congress will begin to shift.
Republicans and the Trump administration were eager to lock in a vote soon, arguing legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects would represent a major bipartisan breakthrough to address voters’ affordability concerns.
President Donald Trump even signaled he would ease his administration’s blockade on wind projects to entice Democrats to agree on a permitting deal.
But Democrats wanted more time for their members to review any bill and are seeking stronger assurances that the Trump administration would lay off its attacks on clean energy projects. They also did not face the same political incentives to act now, with Trump and Republicans struggling in the polls.
“I appreciate very much what the Trump administration has done to move in this direction, but in order to brief colleagues on what this really means, we need just a bit more clarity on exactly what return to regular order for wind and solar projects looks like. So that’s still to be done, but that I think can happen in fairly short order,” Whitehouse told reporters Thursday.
For all the common ground in both parties around encouraging more energy production and accelerating projects to help address affordability concerns and meet rising power demand, permitting also touches on thorny issues for congressional Republicans, Democrats and this White House.
Democrats are pressing for significant measures to boost interstate transmission lines to deliver clean power to major demand centers and restrain the administration’s power to cancel projects or stall on approvals.
Republicans, for their part, want to limit states’ authority to reject projects under a provision of the Clean Water Act that Democratic governors have used to block interstate pipelines.
Other elements of a deal would likely include easing approvals and limiting legal challenges against projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock procedural environmental law that is increasingly blamed for stalling projects of all types, as well as under the National Historic Preservation Act, a landmark law designed to protect Native American cultural treasures.
Amelia Davidson contributed to this report.
An ugly fight is brewing among Democrats about an unlikely issue: college sports regulation.
Senate passage of a White House-endorsed bill to overhaul college athletic rules could happen as soon as Thursday. But despite the bill’s bipartisan backing, Black Democratic lawmakers are warning their own party that supporting the measure risks exploiting Black athletes.
The debate spotlights a painful party divide that could also alienate a key demographic in Democrats’ voter base just weeks before the midterms.
“It is stunning to me,” Sen. Cory Booker told Blue Light News Wednesday, pointing out about half of Senate Democrats have voted to advance the measure thus far.
“I am disappointed in a way I’ve never felt before in the United States Senate with my own caucus,” he said, referring to Democrats. “My caucus, some members of my caucus, are about to take away the rights for athletes to sue.”
Booker is backed by the Congressional Black Caucus, which for months has also pleaded with senators not to pass the Protect College Sports Act they argue strips the rights of student athletes while protecting the NCAA and its coaches. The group helped sink a similar measure in the House earlier this year. CBC member and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reiterated the group’s opposition to the legislation Wednesday.
“This is insane to me, especially because the revenue sports are disproportionately African American,” he said. “When has the Democratic Party stood up for taking away rights from disadvantaged minorities? When have we ever done what we’re about to do right now? It is wrong. It is unjust, and it will disproportionately affect African Americans.”
While a host of student and college groups, including the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the United Negro College Fund, support the bill, both the AFL-CIO and the NAACP say they oppose it for denying student athletes labor protections and unduly benefiting athletic conferences.
Another vocal opponent of the measure, Sen. Chris Murphy, called the divide “a unique moment for Democrats.”
Top Commerce Democrat and bill sponsor Maria Cantwell has said the legislation attempts to restore order to college sports, where major football programs can consume resources that would have otherwise gone to women’s and Olympic sports.
Cantwell, in an interview, countered Booker’s concerns by saying the “historic bill…recognizes for the first time in federal law that student athletes get a percentage of the revenue, ticket sales, media rights, media sales, and sponsorship. Historic.”
A Democratic aide, who is supportive of the bill and was granted anonymity to speak candidly, referenced the number of student athletes who stand to benefit from the measure, “There’s nothing progressive about blocking new protections for 550,000 people just so you can strengthen the hand of the highest-earning 1% of them.”
Booker said without major changes, he would continue the fight if the Senate’s bill makes it to the House.
What else we’re watching:
— THUNE PUTS ODDS ON STAYING IN SESSION: Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday night it’s more likely than not that senators remain in session next week, but the plan is “still to be determined.” “Just don’t make any plans yet. I would say right now still odds are we plan on being here next week, and I’d say that still looks like the case, but if that changes I’ll let you know,” Thune said. Senate Republicans are discussing whether to vote on a data center bill next week being championed by one of their most vulnerable incumbents, Sen. Jon Husted, according to two GOP senators granted anonymity to disclose private talks. They’re also waiting to see if a long-sought deal to overhaul the energy permitting process comes together, which Thune has indicated would trigger members staying in town next week.
— INSIDE THE FIERCE HOUSE GOP WAIVER FIGHT: A behind-the-scenes battle is playing out over several powerful House Republicans who don’t want to be forced out of their posts. House Republicans’ decades old three-term limit for panel leaders has grown less strict in recent years. Some want a crackdown, saying the turnover is needed to promote fresh ideas and leadership in the ranks. Three of the 20 sitting House chairs have signaled interest in applying for a waiver. If each follows through, it would be the first time so many exceptions have been sought at once.
Jordain Carney and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
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