Trump drops housing bill signing plan amid voting-fight push

Donald Trump scrapped plans to sign the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act at the Capitol as he pressed House Republicans to advance voting restrictions first. The move came hours before he was set to visit the Capitol.

The housing bill passed the Senate in March by an 89-10 vote and was designed to spur new home construction, convert abandoned buildings into housing developments and authorize grants to modernize existing homes. Trump had previously urged Congress on Truth Social to pass the measure and said homes should be “for people, not Corporations,” but hard-line House Republicans have stalled it over two provisions. One would impose a temporary ban on a central bank digital currency through 2030. The other would require certain large institutional investors in build-to-rent single-family homes to sell those properties within seven years.

House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill and ranking member Maxine Waters had been negotiating changes to try to keep the bill moving, but the House remains short of the near-unanimous Republican support Speaker Mike Johnson needs for a procedural vote. More than 20 House Republicans have already signed a letter warning that the CBDC language needs to be stronger, while Democrats and some Republicans have pushed back on the investor-sale provision as government interference.

Trump’s shift put the housing measure against his demand that Republicans prioritize the SAVE America Act, a voting-restrictions bill he wants attached to must-pass legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said there are not enough votes to advance that measure and has opposed changing filibuster rules to force it through. In the House, Republicans have already unveiled a separate elections package, the Make Elections Great Again Act, on Jan. 29, 2026. That bill would require photo ID to vote, citizenship verification to register, receipt of mail ballots by Election Day, paper ballots, tighter voter-roll maintenance, a ban on universal vote by mail and a ban on ranked-choice voting in federal elections.