Senate hearing highlights bipartisan Road to Housing Act as central to affordability push

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee's ranking member, and other senators and witnesses centered much of the June hearing on housing supply and the recently passed 21st Century Road to Housing Act, calling it a major step toward easing costs for families.

"Yesterday, the Senate passed our 21st Century Road to Housing Act," Ranking Member Warren said, calling it "the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years" and crediting it with measures to curb private-equity purchases of homes and expand supply. Kevin Brown, president of the National Association of Realtors, described a long-term supply shortfall and summarized provisions in the bill to reform federal programs, streamline environmental review and support pre-reviewed design libraries to speed permitting and construction.

Supporters said the legislation addresses several constraints that have driven up housing prices: regulatory overlap that lengthens construction timelines, restrictive zoning and outdated environmental review processes. "The bill strengthens many existing programs and streamlines others," Brown told the committee, noting reforms to HOME, Community Development Block Grant programs and FHA loan limits.

Opponents and some questioners cautioned that the bill alone will not immediately solve affordability and stressed the need to fund authorized programs. Senator Cortez Masto and others pressed witnesses that passage must be followed by appropriations for HOME and other grants embedded in the package. Brown and other witnesses urged a sustained focus on zoning reform and administrative streamlining at federal and local levels.

The hearing also connected housing policy to broader debates over credit access and regulatory burdens. Several senators asked whether capital rules, consumer-protection actions or other regulatory steps could unintentionally reduce mortgage lending or slow builders. Lindsey Johnson of the Consumer Bankers Association said regulators should balance safety with preserving consumers' access to credit: "We have to get that balance between safety and soundness and allowing a bank to be a bank," she told senators.

The committee recessed after members praised the legislation's passage and urged quick appropriations action, with senators agreeing to follow up in the record and through oversight.

The committee has allowed one week for senators to submit additional questions for the record; witnesses have up to 45 days to respond.