Britt, Tuberville split on bipartisan housing affordability bill

WASHINGTON — Alabama’s U.S. senators were on opposite sides of a vote Thursday to pass bipartisan housing legislation aimed at increasing the housing supply and cutting regulations.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act garnered overwhelming bipartisan support, a rarity in Washington, especially ahead of the midterms. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., voted in favor of the bill to “empower more Americans and Alabamians with the opportunity to own a home.”

“We want to make sure that people have (access) to affordable housing, and being able to live their American dream in their communities all across our great state,” Britt, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and chair of the housing subcommittee, told reporters.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala, was one of just 10 senators who opposed the housing measure, while 89 senators, including Britt, supported it. The bill now heads to the House, which passed similar legislation last month but some members have concerns about the Senate version.

Tuberville attributed his opposition to President Donald Trump’s vow not to sign any bills until Congress passes the Republican-led voter ID bill. The Senate is set to start debate on the Save America Act next week.

“Like President Trump, Coach Tuberville thinks the Save America Act is our No. 1 priority and doesn’t think we should be wasting our time on anything else,” a spokeswoman for Tuberville said in a statement.

The bill, led by Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., streamlines environmental reviews to speed up housing development, encourages local communities to build more houses and removes the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes to expand availability.

It also includes a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes. Investors who build or own at least 350 homes could still build or buy houses to rent them out, but they would have to sell the homes within seven years. That provision has received some pushback from industry groups who argue the requirement to sell the rental homes will lead to fewer available housing options.

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Tuberville also told Alabama Daily News that he was against the ROAD to Housing Act because it “leans towards more of the urban areas than it does rural areas” in terms of helping homeowners. But the sponsors of the bill argue the measure aims to increase the housing supply everywhere.

“It will make long-needed improvements to rural housing programs to preserve affordable housing for 400,000 rural families,” Warren said on the Senate floor.

But Tuberville told ADN that he supports prohibiting institutional investors from buying homes, echoing Trump’s call to stop the practice.

Britt highlighted how the legislation included several of her housing bills, including the Helping More Families Save Act, which would create a pilot program to support housing choice voucher program participants’ transition from government assistance to economic independence.

Opposition to some parts of the Senate’s housing bill threatens to tank the measure’s prospects in the House. Some Republicans, including the top lawmaker on the House Financial Services Committee, have already said changes will need to be made to the bill before the lower chamber passes the measure.

“It is critical we get the details right and mitigate some of the concerns raised by House members with the Senate bill,” Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said in a statement after the Senate passed the bill.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Politico the Senate version wasn’t “as conservative” as the House bill. The members are concerned about pausing the Federal Reserve’s ability to issue a central bank digital currency because they want it to be a permanent change.