The Senate Banking Committee today unanimously passed the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act of 2025, which aims to increase the supply of affordable housing in the U.S.
It was the committee’s first bipartisan housing markup in over a decade.
The bill, which was led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the committee. will expand and preserve housing supply, improve housing affordability, and increase oversight and efficiency of federal regulators and housing programs.
The 315-page bill includes a range of proposals that will help bolster the supply of affordable housing, by modernizing financing, reducing regulatory barriers, promoting economic mobility, and enhancing program oversight.
“The MBA applauds and supports the Senate Banking Committee’s favorable reporting of this significant package that will help make housing more affordable and available to households in both urban and rural communities across America,” says Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), in a statement. “Many of the bill’s provisions will help to boost housing supply for both owning and renting, streamline federal housing program offerings, and make small-dollar mortgage lending more available to consumers.”
“The MBA commends Chair Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren for their continued leadership on housing issues during this Congress, as well as the large bipartisan group of senators who helped craft the measures contained in the bill and then voted to advance the package out of the committee,” Broeksmit says. “Ahead of the proposal’s Senate floor consideration, we will continue to engage with Senators Scott and Warren to potentially refine and improve certain sections of the bill, including provisions dealing with lender liability, second appraisals, and targeted reforms to the Rural Housing Service program.”
“We look forward to these next steps and stand ready to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – and the Trump administration – on these critical reforms that will improve housing opportunities and outcomes for all Americans,” Broeksmit adds.
“For far too long, Congress believed this problem was too big to solve,” Sen. Scott says in a statement. “Today, we’re taking not a step – but we’re taking a leap in the right direction in a bipartisan fashion.”
“Many people around the country are frustrated with the way we do American politics wonder, is there any issue that brings this nation together and I’m here to say, halleluiah! We have found one – it is housing,” Sen. Scott adds.
Photo: Louis Velazquez