Trump cancels bipartisan housing bill signing, reiterates demand for SAVE America Act

Washington — President Trump canceled a planned signing ceremony on Wednesday for a landmark housing affordability bill that passed Congress by wide bipartisan margins, saying he will not sign the legislation into law until lawmakers pass an elections bill known as the SAVE America Act.

Mr. Trump was set to sign the bill, known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, during an event at the Capitol. The measure, the most comprehensive housing legislation in decades, aims to increase housing supply and bring down costs, including by limiting institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes. 

"Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," he wrote. "Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT"

Under the Constitution, a bill that has passed both chambers of Congress and has been presented to the president automatically becomes law if he doesn't sign or veto it within 10 days, excluding Sundays, as long as lawmakers are in session. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the president told him he wants to see more progress on passing the SAVE America Act before he signs the housing bill. 

"He has a window of time before he has to sign a bill, and he's going to use a little bit more of that window of time," Johnson said. "He'll do it within that 10-day window."

A reporter asked the president later Wednesday if he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. He didn't answer directly.

"I said I'm not signing the housing bill, I want to see what happens with SAVE. Look, the housing bill is, I made billions of dollars with housing," he said. "I know housing better than maybe anybody anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates, you can have all the housing you want. But you have to understand, I don't want to hurt people that own houses, too. These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They've become rich. I don't want to hurt them either." 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt advertised the bill signing as recently as Tuesday night. 

Republican lawmakers have touted the housing bill as a key accomplishment heading into the midterm elections, as affordability concerns are top of mind for voters. GOP leaders have struggled to pass significant legislation given their narrow majorities, particularly in the House. 

The president subsequently met with Republican senators on the Hill on Wednesday to discuss the SAVE America Act. After Mr. Trump's post, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the president's move to cancel the housing bill signing was "his call to make."

Thune noted that the housing bill has been a long-sought effort and calls it a "great piece of legislation."

"It's an affordability issue, and eventually I hope he'll find his way to sign it," Thune said.

Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress have demanded the Senate take up the elections measure, which would impose strict new limits on registering to vote and casting a ballot. But Republican leaders in the upper chamber have repeatedly said they do not have the votes to approve it or change Senate rules to push it through. 

"He's fixated on the SAVE Act that we passed three times out of the House," Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CBS News. "He strongly endorsed the housing bill a month ago, so the criticisms now are strange. We made the Senate bill better than when he endorsed it."

In an earlier post, the president downplayed the significance of the housing bill in comparison to the SAVE America Act. 

"The Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT," he wrote, referring to the Massachusetts Democratic senator who has been one of the main proponents of the bill.

The House approved the housing bill Tuesday evening by a wide bipartisan margin after the Senate passed the measure a day earlier. Its passage through both chambers came after months of back-and-forth between the two chambers. 

What the housing bill does

Among its more than 45 provisions, the bill includes provisions aimed at increasing development of affordable housing by removing regulatory barriers and streamlining environmental reviews. It also:

• Launches a pilot program to help local governments convert vacant commercial buildings into affordable housing;
• Unlocks more federal funding for the construction of factory-built homes;
• Eliminates a rule that requires homes to be built on a chassis, a steel framework used to transport them;
• Creates an innovation fund for communities increasing housing supply and supports housing opportunities for veterans;
• Limits the purchases of single-family homes by institutional investors.

Supporters say the institutional investor limits will cut competition and benefit homebuyers. The restrictions apply to existing single-family homes, not new construction, a carveout that preserves incentives for financial firms to invest in new housing construction, a Senate staffer previously told CBS News. 

As of 2025, larger institutional investors — those that own more than 1,000 homes — owned a combined 500,000 properties, accounting for 0.34% of U.S. housing stock and roughly 3% of the total single-family rental supply, according to analysts with BofA Global Research. 

Yet such investors are a much larger presence in some cities. In Jacksonville, Florida, for example, investors own more than 20% of single-family rental homes, according to a 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis. Between 2018 and 2024, Dallas and Phoenix each added at least 16,000 investor-owned homes, up 177% and 114%, respectively, over that period. 

Institutional investors "don't own a large percentage of all the single-family homes in the United States, but it's concentrated in certain communities throughout the country, and that's the concern," said Dennis Shea, executive vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The legislation's passage represented a rare moment of bipartisan achievement in a Congress that has been marked by obstruction and a series of stalemates. Lawmakers have feuded over some of their most basic responsibilities, like funding the government, while party-line legislation has been the focus of the previous 18 months under narrow GOP majorities. 

The bill's passage was even more striking in an election year, when divisions are generally more pronounced.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president is "running away from one of the very few accomplishments that could actually help the American people" by refusing to sign the legislation. 

"The bipartisan housing bill was an accomplishment that the American people want, are proud of, and need," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Trump runs away from it. He's not going to sign it. He's petulant, he's angry, and he looks ridiculous canceling it just two hours before he's supposed to sign it."