House passes bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act to speed construction and ease regulations

The House on Feb. 9 passed HR 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, by a recorded vote of 390 to 9, a large bipartisan margin that supporters said aims to expand housing supply and lower costs.

Chairman French Hill, the bill’s floor manager, urged colleagues to support the package, saying, "I rise in strong support today of our collaborative bipartisan bill entitled Housing for the 20 first Century Act." He and other supporters described the measure as a mix of housing, banking and regulatory reforms designed to speed construction and relieve costs. "Building more homes, removing barriers ... to give rural and urban communities the tools they need to build homes faster," Hill said on the floor.

Supporters listed several central provisions: tailoring environmental reviews for HUD and USDA projects (Sections 104–105) to reduce unnecessary delay; reforms to the HOME block grant (Section 201) to increase local flexibility; a change to manufactured-housing rules to remove an outdated permanent-chassis requirement (Section 301), and a package of community-banking reforms in Title 6 intended to expand lending capacity and ease regulatory burdens for de novo and smaller banks.

Rep. Mike Flood, authoring part of the package, described the bill as "a comprehensive bipartisan housing reform package that will increase housing supply, slash government regulations that keep housing costs high and unleash our community banking sector." Ranking member Maxine Waters (as recorded on the floor) stressed the package’s Democratic provisions — including measures to expand affordable-housing financing and to help community lenders — saying the bill "will help increase home production... and broaden access to homeownership."

Other members highlighted particular local impacts. Rep. Tim Rose, author of the manufactured-housing provisions, said removing the permanent chassis requirement would "enable significant growth for manufactured housing and reduce the cost of manufactured homes," while members representing rural districts emphasized streamlining redundant environmental reviews to reduce project delays.

The bill drew extensive floor remarks from members on both sides of the aisle, and managers entered CBO estimates and supporting materials into the record. After debate, the House voted electronically on the measure; the Speaker’s desk announced the tally as yays 390 and nays 9. The Chair declared the rules suspended and the bill passed; the motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

What’s next: House managers and supporters said they expect negotiations and further consideration in the Senate; sponsors urged prompt action to move the measure toward final approval and implementation.

Sources: Floor proceedings and debate recorded on Feb. 9, 2026. Direct quotes and floor statements are attributed to members who spoke on the record.