Lowering Housing Costs and Advancing Main Street Community Banks

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Housing for the 21st Century Act, a bill that advances exactly what Americans voted for: fewer bureaucrats, more builders, lower costs, and real results.

Right now, families across America are still recovering from Biden- era inflation, sky-high interest rates, and a Washington regulatory state that makes it harder and more expensive to build a home.

The radical left's answer is always more government, more mandates, more red tape. Well, that is how we got into this mess. Republicans have a better answer: Build more homes, faster, better, and cheaper.

The solution to inflation, the solution to higher costs, is always more supply. The reason we have affordability challenges in housing, Mr. Speaker, is because we have an inventory shortage. Republicans are offering solutions to provide more housing stock to lower the costs for the American people and deliver on that American Dream of homeownership.

This bill cuts through the regulatory choke hold that Washington has imposed on housing. It streamlines permitting, modernizes outdated Federal programs, and gets the Federal Government out of the way so builders can do what they do best: build.

It empowers local communities, not central planners in Washington, D.C. It supports community banks. It focuses on supply-side solutions, not failed subsidies that only drive prices higher.

Under President Donald Trump, we proved that when we cut regulations, unleash private investments, and trust American workers, the economy grows and families thrive. This bill applies that same America First, progrowth approach to housing.

Instead of telling Americans how to live, this legislation helps them own a home, raise a family, and build wealth, the foundation of the American Dream.

Mr. Speaker, I love the fact that this legislation focuses on overregulation of manufactured housing, an outstanding solution for many low- and moderate-income individuals who just can't get there in terms of a downpayment or just can't get there in terms of the monthly payment. Manufactured housing, especially in rural America, is a great solution for a lower downpayment and a lower monthly payment.

Burdensome HUD regulations have been an impediment to unleashing more manufactured housing stock for Americans. This bill provides a solution to that, eliminating ridiculous regulations that really impede manufactured housing.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, I will spend my time here tonight highlighting the section of the bill that provides regulatory relief for community banks.

To drive down costs, we need to make it easier for those community- based lenders to originate residential construction loans and development loans to address the shortage of inventory. More supply means lower costs, and more provision of capital into the real economy from community financial institutions that know the borrower, that have a relationship with that builder, the more supply of housing stock to help lower the cost.

Inflation and high prices are always a function of a supply-demand mismatch. If we can help incentivize more capital formation and lending to the builders, the entrepreneurs who provide additional housing for Americans, especially in that one to four residential construction zone, the better in terms of affordability for Americans.

According to the FDIC, approximately 60 percent of one- to four- family residential construction and development loans were held by banks with assets under $10 billion. Those are the community banks. Lowering the regulatory costs on those institutions in particular is critical to increasing the supply of housing.

This bill does exactly that. It lowers the regulatory burden on those community financial institutions that provide the bulk of these construction loans. This is the bill that the Committee on Financial Services passed, and we passed it with bipartisan support because the problem is obvious: We don't have enough housing, and Washington is making it worse. The solution is also obvious: Stop standing in the way.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation rejects the left's obsession with central planning and embraces free enterprise, local control, and common sense. It puts builders back to work and expands housing supply, and it helps bring costs down for hardworking Americans.

That is why I urge my colleagues to support Housing for the 21st Century Act, deliver real America First solutions for the people we serve, and enhance regulatory tailoring for those community financial institutions--cutting red tape; streamlining bank exams and outdated thresholds so well-run banks can focus on lending, not paperwork; expanding community and rural banks' access to stable deposits so that they can lend locally and support small businesses and households; supporting rural banks; encouraging new bank formation; and providing regulators flexibility to handle failures without hurting local access to banking.

Mr. Speaker, I especially thank Chairman Hill for including in this legislation a version of my bill, the Promoting New Bank Formation Act, which allows for a phase-in of capital requirements for new banks to make it easier for de novo charters. We have seen a dearth and a decline in de novo charters. The more community-based lenders, the better. The more community banks that are formed in this country, the more competition and choice, the more access to capital for those construction and development loans. That means lower home prices, more homes, and more access to the American Dream of homeownership for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues--most of my colleagues for supporting this bill tonight, the Housing for the 21st Century Act.

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