I know you can hardly believe it (me too), but this might be something. McCormick and Fetterman are working together with many other elected officials in the City of Swamp to (hopefully 🤞🏻) make housing more affordable. Let’s hope they can add enough amendments and caveats to ensure the benefits aren’t swallowed up by a bunch of private equity funds and Wall Street investors posing as “small landlords.” 🙄

row of houses to go along with story about ROAD to Housing Act

But to stay positive, the bill is called the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025. It passed the House 390-9 on February 9, 2026. Friends, 390-9! Usually, our elected officials only pass stupid partisan bills by the tiniest hair on their chinny, chin, chin. 🐷 This bill had 16 Democratic and 15 Republican co-sponsors in the House and passed overwhelmingly.

Last week, that bill passed in the Senate 89-10. 89-10! 🎉 Another landslide of support. It was championed by Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). More bi-partisan buddies! 👯 They don’t have much in common, but they found common ground to collaborate and usher this bill through committee and the full Senate.

But… (ugh, there’s always a “but” in Washington, isn’t there). 🙄 Hold on, let me fix my eyeballs that just rolled so far back in my head they got stuck.

The Senate pulled a fast one on the House and completely replaced the bill’s text with its own language (same gist, new words).

And there’s another “butt.” Some of the Representatives in the House are “butthurt”¹ that their own bill didn’t pass the way they worded it. Even though the bills included substantially (though not entirely) the same language and policy, some in the House have hurt feelings because they didn’t get to sit at the lunch table with the cool Senators who discussed the new language. They’re feeling very left out. 💔

💭 These self-important people need to get over themselves and just do the work to make lives better for their constituents. Good grief.

Worth noting: the Senate added restrictions on institutional investors owning single-family homes to the legislation, which were not included in the bill that passed the House. Take a deeper dive here, if you’re curious. This is right in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s wheelhouse, so I suspect she had a hand in this. For whatever it’s worth, I think these additional restrictions should help bring down home prices for everyday Americans.

Quick aside about a few questions I have:

We finally have serious bipartisan support for something meaningful, and we’re potentially going to let it go by the wayside because a few grown adults can’t regulate their ego emotions? I hope this is just political posturing and not actual tantrums from adult-sized toddlers.
Even if they can agree on a bill (and they seem like they’re pretty much all on the same policy page), Trump says he won’t sign any legislation until the garbage SAVE Act is passed. Are we going to watch major, necessary housing reform slip through the cracks because our President wants to make voting harder for eligible voters in response to a made-up problem (when the real problem is that he’s afraid his team is going to get pummeled in fair elections)? Can we please get more serious? Even if you love the SAVE Act, why should its debate and processing prohibit other good, very bipartisan legislation from being executed in the meantime?
Why is no one talking about a housing affordability bill that passed with such broad support? Am I missing something? I feel like this is a trick…

🏠 Ok, let’s get back to the good stuff.

What is the ROAD to Housing Act?

The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act (ROAD to Housing Act) is a mouthful on purpose. It’s a bipartisan kitchen-sink bill designed to appeal to both sides.

Umm… I’m a fan of political compromises. Tell me more!

The bill covers housing supply, homelessness, manufactured housing, disaster recovery, homeownership, rural housing, program reform, veterans’ housing, and oversight and coordination.

If Elizabeth Warren was involved, there’s a good chance she made darn sure financial investors can’t abuse this legislation. She’s no fan of Wall Street or private equity (one of the most prominent and persistent critics of the finance industry in the Senate). 🪄 She brings a very strong consumer protection lens to everything she touches.

💭 Was that fancy Oval Office meeting between Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump with the slick newspaper headline mock-ups really foreshadowing something good on the horizon?

Via Mamdani Instagram account from February 26, 2026

What does the ROAD to Housing Act actually do?

The bill is broadly supply-side focused, which is somewhat unusual for federal housing legislation. “Supply-side” means prioritizing the construction of more homes, not just offering tax incentives or other subsidies to help people pay for existing homes (which can sometimes inflate prices without actually solving the problem). If you’ve heard about ‘the abundance agenda,’ this is it. 🏠

The bill was introduced in 2025. It’s taken a circuitous route through Congress, but it seems to be gaining steam quickly after finally passing in both the House and the Senate. The Banking Senate Committee provided a quick summary of the bill in this PDF.

Some of the notable components are:

The Whole-Home Repairs Act, which would establish a 5-year pilot program offering grants and forgivable loans to low- and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords to address home repair needs and health hazards, to stabilize aging housing stock, and preserve affordable units.
The BUILD Housing Act, which cuts red tape around environmental reviews, empowers states, local governments, and tribes to streamline reviews and increase housing development.
The Innovation Fund, which creates a competitive pool of flexible funding for communities that are building more housing.
Updates to manufactured housing standards, removing a HUD requirement that homes be constructed on a permanent chassis, lowering production costs.
Grant programs to help establish pre-approved housing designs in a community to streamline construction.
Incentives to build near public transit routes.
Pilot program to incentivize conversion of vacant or abandoned buildings into attainable housing.
and more…

Why am I telling you about this in this community newsletter?

Bi-partisan collabs are the best 🥂

First off, I’m just excited to celebrate true, bipartisan legislation that’s addressing a real problem. Let’s give the guys and gals in Washington credit where credit is due. We don’t have too many chances to call them and thank them for their service.

Every Representative from Pennsylvania voted yes, including our local Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. Chrissy Houlahan was the only exception; she did not vote at all (she may have been absent when the vote took place). Obviously, with a 390-9 outcome, her vote didn’t impact the result. Both of our United States Senators voted for the bill in the Senate. Who hoo! 🥳

The abundance agenda impacts all of us

The ROAD to Housing Act is a textbook example of what’s being called the “abundance agenda.” Prioritizing “abundance” is a growing bipartisan idea that we need to reverse one of America’s core problems, a trend that we’ve made it absurdly hard to build things: homes, energy infrastructure, transit, you name it.

For decades, well-meaning regulations, local veto power, and endless review processes have quietly strangled supply while demand kept climbing. Consequently, we have a housing market in which even solidly middle-class families are being priced out of ordinary neighborhoods.

The abundance agenda clears sand out of the gears of development. Build more, permit faster, and reward the communities that actually get out of the way and let it happen. I’m hoping that an abundance mindset in housing can bleed into other areas like clean energy, too. Clean energy infrastructure has struggled to gain steam and get built (often in the face of environmental review pushback, which is bonkers). Local “NIMBYism” (not in my backyard) sentiments have played a huge role in this stagnancy.

In a political moment when almost nothing passes, and bipartisanship is basically a myth, the ROAD to Housing Act is the kind of thing worth paying attention to.

Solving real problems matters

When our government puts its heads and hearts together to do good and address real kitchen-table issues, it makes life better for all of us, regardless of our political preferences, sports affiliations, zip codes, or favorite flavor at Crumbl. 🍪 We need reminders that self-government can still work, and it’s worth believing in!!

What do you think?

Are you excited about the possibilities of this bill? Are you happy to see bipartisan coalitions and legislation? How do you think it might impact Chadds Ford and the surrounding area? I’d love to hear your thoughts!