Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves led off his weekly press conference on June 24 praising Congress for passing the bipartisan housing affordability bill, just minutes before President Donald Trump announced he was refusing to sign the bill until Congress passed the controversial voting law known as the Save America Act.
Reeves said the 21st Century Road to Housing Act would be a major win for Pensacola, whose residents have repeatedly said in surveys that the high cost of housing has been one of their primary concerns.
“There will be real, we believe, real positive impacts in terms of our housing needs here in the city,” Reeves said.
The bill allows local governments to use more of the federal dollars they receive through Community Development Block Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development directly on building affordable housing and speeds up the time environmental reviews take for housing construction in areas that have already been built on previously. It also caps the number of homes institutional investors can own to only 350 nationwide, which proponents say will free up housing stock to individual home buyers.
Reeves said City Housing Director Betsy McDonald will review the legislation to determine how the city can participate in its programs.
The bill hasn’t gotten a lot of attention as it’s moved through the legislative process, and it’s been one of the rare examples of bipartisan cooperation in Congress. The final version of the bill passed with overwhelming support in both houses of Congress. The Senate passed the bill on June 22 in an 85-to-5 vote, and the House of Representatives passed the bill on June 23 in a 358-to-32 vote.
The United States Conference of Mayors has backed the legislation, and Reeves was recently selected for a one-year term on the 14-member board of trustees that governs the nonpartisan organization.
“This was a big conversation about trying to get this across the finish line, and some glimmer of encouragement in an otherwise divisive country that we can all agree that affordability is a major, major issue, and housing is a major issue,” Reeves said. “And that we can put our disagreements aside as a country, and come up with some real solutions.”
Those comments came just before news broke Wednesday morning that Trump had canceled the planned bill signing at Capitol Hill.
Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he would not sign the bill until Congress passed the Save America Act.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote on his social media post. “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”
Political observers have noted the practical reality that passing the current form of the Save America Act would require Republicans to abolish the filibuster because of Senate Democrats’ opposition to the bill.
Republicans have branded the bill as a nationwide voter ID law, but the more controversial elements require states to submit their voter rolls to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to flag people as “noncitizens,” and states will have to remove those people from the rolls within 30 days.
The bill will also require proof of citizenship “in person” when registering to vote, effectively eliminating the ability to go online or mail a form to register to vote.
The bill also requires a voter’s full name on their ID to match their birth certificate or naturalization card, which critics have said could cause problems for married women who take their spouse’s last name, though the Trump administration has said those concerns are overblown.
The News Journal asked Reeves about the news during the press conference.
“This is what I get for talking about federal policy,” Reeves said. “No, I don’t have any comment on that.”
Reeves added that he hopes the housing bill will still become law.
“I would maintain, as the U.S. Conference of Mayors has, is that you have a bill with bipartisan support, and you have a problem that not one mayor, county commissioner, city council member in this country would argue is solved, which is housing,” Reeves said. “… I don’t know the dealings within Washington, D.C., nor comment on that, other than to say I personally hope that this bipartisan piece of legislation gets put through, because this could lead to real solutions and real impact on affordability here in the city.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the bill’s status was still in a legislative limbo as Trump hadn’t directly threatened to veto it. As long as Congress remains in session, the bill will become law 10 days after it is formally delivered to the president by House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola mayor praises housing bill. Then Trump halted signing.
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
