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First Draft Live: Congress Finally Faces The Housing Math

Fri Feb 20, 2026

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First Draft Live: Congress Finally Faces The Housing Math

Featuring Continental Properties CEO James Schloemer

Friday February 20 2026 @ 12:30 PM EST

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Welcome Back to First Draft Live

For a long time, America’s housing crisis has lived in Washington purgatory. So when Congress advanced the Housing for the 21st Century Act by a 390-9 vote last week, it landed differently. Not because it solved the crisis overnight, but because it acknowledged something developers have known for years: You cannot fix a 5.5 million-unit housing shortage with speeches. You have to build.

On the next episode of First Draft Live, Continental Properties Chairman and CEO James Schloemer, who just concluded a two-year term as chairman of the National Multifamily Housing Council, joins us to examine a sector that’s already delivering supply without subsidies or federal programs.

The show will explore why workforce housing has become one of the most undersupplied and economically critical segments of U.S. real estate, how private developers are navigating rising costs and political scrutiny and whether Washington’s long-awaited housing push will actually accelerate construction or simply acknowledge what the market was already doing.

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First Draft Live returns for Season 2, bringing with it a continued commitment to compelling conversations with commercial real estate’s leading voices. Inspired by our daily newsletter, The First Draft, Bisnow’s Editor in Chief Mark Bonner takes viewers behind the scenes on what’s shaping everything from capital trends and policy changes to sector-specific activity, in discussion with the people making it happen.

We’ve hosted some of the industry’s top voices — and there’s more to come. Bring your questions, join the conversation, or catch the replay within 24 hours if you can’t attend live. Past episodes can be found here.

Interested in speaking? Contact our Vice President of Production, Elizabeth Baker, at liz.baker@bisnow.com.

Agenda

Time Activity
12:30 PM
1:00 PM
First Draft Live: Congress Finally Faces The Housing Math
Featuring Continental Properties CEO James Schloemer

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