(José Niño, Headline USA) Congress got its housing overhaul across the line at 12 a.m. Saturday, and the president never touched it. CBS News reported that President Donald Trump kept his signature off the measure as leverage against the Senate, which has refused to move his elections bill, the SAVE America Act.
Lawmakers built the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act across party lines, and CBS News described it as the most far reaching housing legislation in a generation. The law pushes builders to add supply, pulls costs downward and blocks big institutional buyers from scooping up certain single family homes.
The White House originally planned a party. According to CBS, Trump had booked a Capitol Hill signing last month, days after the Senate and the House approved the package by lopsided bipartisan votes. CBS reported that he pulled the plug with just hours left on the clock and announced he would freeze the bill until Congress delivered his elections legislation, which would clamp down on voting and voter registration.
Friday morning he dug in again on Truth Social.
“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, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” he wrote.
His protest changed nothing. CBS noted that the Constitution turns a bill into law automatically once 10 days pass, Sundays not counted, if the president skips both the signature and the veto. Speaker Mike Johnson triggered that countdown on June 29.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who steered the bill through the Senate, went after him hard.
“At the stroke of midnight, a huge bipartisan bill to lower housing costs became law without the President’s signature. Why did President Trump sit on the landmark housing bill for more than 2 weeks? Maybe because there was nothing in it for him personally — no gold-encrusted ballroom, no Qatari jet, no $2 billion crypto deal. Nothing in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing except ways to make housing more affordable,” she said. “Donald Trump couldn’t pick up the pen because he just isn’t interested in lowering costs for American families.”
Trump brushed the housing law off as “a yawn” and told reporters, “I think it’s so unimportant” beside his campaign to end mail voting and require citizenship proof and photo ID.
Johnson tried to smooth it over, telling reporters Trump “has not read through every line of that piece of legislation.” He said he pressed Trump to sign using “the fattest black marker you have.”
“So I hope he does sign it. If he doesn’t, it’s still law; we’ll still celebrate it,” Johnson said. “But he’s trying to make a point and I think he’s making it very effectively.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
