Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher slammed President Donald Trump for letting a bipartisan housing bill automatically become law after he refused to sign it in protest over the Senate’s stalling on the SAVE America Act.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law on Saturday, in accordance with the Constitution, which states that a bill that passes both houses of Congress automatically becomes law if the president doesn’t sign or veto it within 10 days, excluding Sundays.
“It is dumb that he did not embrace this,” Doescher said on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria Bartiromo Monday. “Because when consumers complain about prices, up until the Iran war, it wasn’t really about consumer prices … the rest of inflation was coming down; it was about housing, and to a lesser extent, healthcare, childcare, education. But really, housing is that number one issue.”
Trump was expected to sign the housing bill at Capitol Hill during a ceremony in June, but abruptly canceled in protest over the Senate’s inaction in passing his election legislation, the SAVE America Act.
The president remained firm on his stance over the bipartisan housing legislation, announcing on Friday that he would not sign the bill.
“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 on Friday.
The bipartisan housing legislation aims to lower housing costs and increase housing supply. In the U.S., the average cost of an existing home was $440,600 in June, a 49.2% increase from June 2020, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
Doescher emphasized she didn’t understand why the president didn’t sign the bill into law.
“I don’t know why Trump didn’t just sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” she said. “Obviously, he let that turn into law because he didn’t veto it, but it’s very rare. The last time a bill became law like that was under Gerald Ford’s presidency.”
In 1975, President Gerald Ford allowed a bill that would freeze the increased cost for food stamps to automatically become law when he refused to sign it. Ford let the 10-day constitutional clock on the bill run out because Congress had the votes to override his potential presidential veto.
HOUSING BILL WOULDN’T OFFER MUCH AFFORDABILITY RELIEF UNTIL AFTER MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Doescher argued Republicans need to campaign on issues like affordability and housing prices.
“Republicans need to be pointing to Austin, Texas; they need to be pointing to North Carolina, pointing to all these states that have just built, used that YIMBY movement, and that’s why you have the exodus out of all the blue states,” she said.