Statue Room at the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026. The room was set up for a ceremony at which President Donald Trump would sign a largely bipartisan housing bill into law, but Trump abruptly canceled the event. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
President Donald Trump derailed a housing overhaul he planned to sign into law on Wednesday, canceling a signing ceremony for the widely popular bipartisan bill until Congress passes an election security measure.
Trump was scheduled to sign it The invoicewhich passed the Senate on Monday and the House of Representatives on Tuesday with wide marginsduring a ceremony at the Capitol.
But in two social media posts before the event, he derided the housing cost reform as “minor” before refusing to sign it outright.
“Today’s housing news conference and signing is hereby canceled until we pass the much-needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider a national emergency,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
The controversial SAVE America Act, a top priority for Trump, addresses the extremely uncommon phenomenon of non-citizen voting. Republican senators have told Trump that there are not enough votes in the House of Representatives for passage.
The Senate housing bill’s proponents, Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and senior Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sought to reduce the cost of housing construction by removing regulatory barriers, expanding the utilize of federal housing subsidies and banning institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes.
Scott, a South Carolina Republican, praised the bill Tuesday as not only bipartisan but bipartisan and addressing universal needs.
Republican leaders framed the measure as a solution to affordability, which is expected to be a key issue in November’s midterm elections amid stubborn inflation.
The measure, which combined elements of proposals in each chamber, appeared to be on track to become law after the Senate approved it 85-5 on Monday and the House voted 358-32 for it on Tuesday. The White House said Trump supported the bill.
The House opponents were virtually all from a group of conservatives led by Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who said she would oppose all Senate legislation and even some House rules resolutions until the Senate passes Trump’s election security measure.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a news conference Wednesday morning that he had spoken with the president earlier in the day and that he would delay signing the housing bill until Congress approves an election grant program through the elaborate budget reconciliation process. This is the same process the GOP used to pass its “big, beautiful” law and $70 billion for immigration enforcement.
“You have to put that on a reconciliation bill,” he said. “We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to budget reconciliation, and you allow blue states, when they come to their senses and want to take advantage of election integrity proposals, ideas and policies, they can draw from a federal fund and use those funds. We’re prepared to invest heavily in those funds.”
Johnson said he told Trump that Republicans in Congress could implement these policies if they “stand together.”
“As you know, he has a window of opportunity before he has to sign a bill, and he’s going to use that window a little bit longer,” Johnson said. “And we will get through this together.”
Johnson said he expects Trump to sign the housing bill within the 10-day deadline.
