House Bill Will Call On Federal Agencies To Team Up For Affordable Housing
The leaders of the bipartisan Congressional Real Estate Caucus are planning to introduce legislation to encourage government agencies to work together to tackle housing affordability.
Republican Reps. Mark Alford of Missouri and Tracey Mann of Kansas are partnering with Democratic Reps. Lou Correa of California and Brittany Pettersen of Colorado to introduce the Saving the American Dream Act.
The bill has been shared with Semafor but not yet submitted to Congress. It calls on the heads of five government agencies to combine forces and generate a report that outlines an interagency data sharing plan and proposals for tackling housing affordability.
“I’m proud to introduce this legislation with our Real Estate Caucus Co-Chairs to unlock a whole-of-government approach to solve the crisis and reignite this pillar of the American Dream,” Alford said in a statement.
The bill has the support of a host of industry groups, including the National Association of Homebuilders, National Apartment Association and the Mortgage Bankers Association.
If enacted, the bill gives the heads of the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency one year to generate a report with recommendations.
It asks the agency heads to find ways to coordinate federal housing finance programs, lower mortgage costs, cut construction costs, reduce local regulatory barriers, increase insurance availability, provide down payment assistance to buyers and coordinate disaster recovery.
It also requires that the agencies establish a protocol to “share and coordinate relevant housing-related research and market data that facilities [sic] evidence-based policymaking.”
That will help government agencies and developers better target areas where affordable housing is most needed and can be the most successful, National Apartment Association CEO Bob Pinnegar said in a statement
“The data gathering and coordination in the Saving the American Dream Act will be critical information to help address housing supply needs in communities across our country,” he said.
The Real Estate Caucus was started in 2024 by the four representatives sponsoring the legislation tof tackle housing affordability. It has since grown to more than 50 members of Congress, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The bill comes two months after Republican Sen. Tim Scott and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 in the Senate.
That legislation, coming from the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, is looking to reform zoning and land use rules like parking minimums that they say will help municipalities overcome hurdles to affordable housing development.
The U.S. would need another 7.1 million affordable housing units to address the needs of just the group of renters considered extremely low-income, according to a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
