President Trump said Friday he wouldn't sign a landmark housing bill, amid a standoff between the White House and Congress over legislators' attempt to address a key complaint of their constituents over the cost of housing.
The White House didn't immediately clarify whether Trump planned to veto the legislation. The legislation is set to become law automatically if Trump takes no action.
In a social-media post on Friday, the president said he would refuse to sign the housing bill because Congress hasn't yet passed separate legislation that would mandate proof of citizenship to register to vote as well as voter ID nationwide. Trump has been pressuring the Senate to pass the bill for months, but top Republicans in the chamber say it doesn't have enough support.
"THE SAVE AMERICA ACT'S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The president canceled the original signing ceremony last month and said he wouldn't sign the bill until Congress passed legislation to toughen voter eligibility requirements. That blindsided congressional lawmakers who had been ready to declare the housing bill a rare bipartisan victory on a popular issue squeezing voters' budgets. Real-estate industry leaders were also thrown off by the last-minute cancellation after they spent months lobbying to ensure certain provisions wouldn't negatively affect their businesses.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson met with the White House later in June after which he told reporters he would send the bill to the president's desk.
The housing bill includes 50-some provisions aimed at making it easier to build homes and boost housing affordability. Home builders and developers say it could help at the margins. But most of the obstacles to housing production revolve around local zoning and building regulations that the federal government doesn't have the authority to overhaul.
Still, four months out from the midterm elections, federal lawmakers are banking on this new law to show voters they are trying to address the high cost of living.
In June, after months of negotiations, Congress passed the bill by sweeping margins. The White House was looking to tout the legislation because it included a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes, which Trump pushed for earlier this year.
Write to Rebecca Picciotto at Rebecca.Picciotto@wsj.com and Marianne LeVine at marianne.levine@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 10, 2026 09:52 ET (13:52 GMT)
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