President Donald Trump said Friday that he will not sign a major bipartisan housing bill on his desk, but he didn’t explicitly say whether he would veto the legislation.
If he doesn’t issue a veto, the measure will become law at the end of Friday.
Trump’s announcement is at least a symbolic blow to Republicans in the House and Senate who have worked for months to enact the bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, ahead of the midterm elections. But because Trump didn’t mention a veto, the legislation could become law. Still, he called it a “protest” over the Senate not passing voting legislation he has long favored.
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“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The housing bill is set to become law at midnight Friday, given that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) formally transmitted it to the White House for approval, setting a 10-day timer.
The administration had previously expressed support for the bill, which is designed to bring down costs by increasing the housing supply, and Trump had already planned to sign the legislation back in June.
Trump had been slated to sign the bill on Capitol Hill last month, but he unexpectedly said at the last minute he would delay doing so until the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
Johnson has previously denied that Trump would veto the bill.
“He won’t veto the bill,” Johnson said after meeting with the president late last month. “We already know that. He’ll either allow it to just go into law, or he’ll put his signature on it and take partial ownership, and I hope he does the latter.”
The bill was overwhelmingly bipartisan.
The House voted 358-32 to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and the Senate voted 85-5 to do the same.
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Boosting housing supply has long been a goal for affordable housing advocates, who say the U.S. housing market is millions of homes short of where it should be.
Affordability, given years of red-hot inflation, has become a top consideration in the midterm elections.