(The Center Square) – Major housing legislation that overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress won’t become law this week after the president refused to sign it Wednesday.
President Donald Trump announced via social media that the signing ceremony for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is cancelled until Congress passes Republicans’ voter identification bill, the SAVE America Act.
Because a bill that has passed both the House and Senate automatically becomes law after 10 days if the president does not sign or veto it, Trump’s demand carries little weight.
Congress could also likely override any veto, given that it garnered support from more than two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers.
But Trump’s announcement damages the message Republicans wanted to send to voters with the 2026 midterm elections approaching. Republicans had hoped to point to the housing bill’s success as evidence that their party is tackling affordability issues, which Democrats have made a pain point.
Now, Democrats are using Trump’s refusal as a political weapon, with Sen. Chris Murphey, D-Conn., accusing the president of “willing to let people stay homeless” and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., dubbing Trump’s demand “a Hail Mary attempt to save [his] own fragile ego from electoral humiliation.”
“At a time when homeownership is out of reach for most, Trump is refusing to sign the bipartisan housing affordability bill into law. He is putting his personal agenda over the needs of the American people,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., added on social media. “This is not how a President should govern, and Congress must fight back.”
It also marks yet another instance of the president demanding what seems like the politically impossible of congressional Republicans, who don’t have enough votes in the Senate for the SAVE America Act to pass.
Trump last week derailed lawmakers’ negotiations over reauthorizing a critical surveillance authority of the federal government by pulling his nominee for director of national intelligence and issuing the same legislative demand.
FISA Section 702 has now expired — though federal agencies still maintain its authorities until March 2027 — and Trump has vowed he will not approve any extension without the SAVE America Act.
Unlike with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, Congress would likely be unable to override a veto on FISA Section 702 reauthorization, due to the Fourth Amendment concerns surrounding the law that have turned dozens of lawmakers against a clean extension.
Trump’s pressure campaign could ultimately lead to nothing but headaches for Republican leaders, especially Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Thune has consistently rejected the idea of eliminating the chamber’s filibuster, citing the lack of party support and the future consequences it would bring for Republicans when or if they lose the majority.
The only legislative vehicle through which Republicans can pass legislation by majority vote in the Senate is via the budget reconciliation process, which has rules specifically forbidding the inclusion of policies that have no deficit impact.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., however, believes portions of the voter-ID bill could be worked into the budget reconciliation format, such as by creating a grant program for states that adopt policies from the SAVE America Act.
"[B]lue states, if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity proposals and ideas and policies, they can draw down from a federal fund and use those funds," Johnson told reporters in a Wednesday presser. "I talked the president through that in detail this morning as I have in the past, and he said can we do it. I said we can, if the Republicans will stand together."
