Lowering Housing Costs and Advancing Main Street Community Banks

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRANK. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, Mr. Haridopolos from Florida, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the pursuit of the American Dream, the dream of one day owning a home, is quickly becoming increasingly unattainable for so many Americans, thanks in part, to costly regulations and market factors.

With housing prices surging, evidence shows that we have a supply problem, but let's look more into why this might be.

In my home State of Colorado, regulations account for 39 percent of the cost of building a new home. Thirty-nine percent of the cost is government imposed regulation. For those who might be wondering what that means, that means if you pay $5, $2 of that, Mr. Speaker, is just because of regulation. That is what is causing the problem.

Government should exist to provide order and protection for its citizens. It shouldn't be there with overbearing mandates that make life more difficult and expensive, especially for something as fundamental as property and homeownership.

One of the contributing factors to these regulatory costs is the agenda informed energy codes that States like Colorado are mandating. They ignore science, and they even push aside stakeholders, the builders, the people who actually build the homes and make this American Dream. They push them aside in the creation process. Unelected bureaucrats have mandated these energy codes blinded in their pursuit of climate change altering results.

Instead, I argue these codes should promote affordability, and they should decrease the regulatory burden on our homebuilders instead of increasing that burden.

Simply put, it is impossible to achieve a more affordable home building atmosphere while adding regulations to the books instead of removing them.

Mr. Speaker, it really is that simple. To incentivize States to roll back these mandates, I introduced the Freeing Residential Affordable Markets From Excess Regulations, or FRAMER Act. This piece of legislation would require States to reimburse homebuilders for the cost difference between State mandated energy codes and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's minimum standard for homes built within Federal Opportunity Zones.

Stakeholders in my district, builders and citizens who want to reach the American Dream, tell me that the cost of energy code mandates totals in the thousands in added costs. In some cases tens of thousands of dollars are added to the cost for a home.

It is long overdue that States change their ways. If we want to make housing more affordable, then we have to make it cheaper for homebuilders to do what they want to do, build.

The only way we can do this is to get the government out of the way and remove these costly regulations that are only increasing the cost of housing across America to help every American realize the American Dream.

Removing that regulation is part of what the Housing for the 21st Century Act does. It cuts red tape, and it makes a difference for average Americans.

I am very proud to have supported this piece of legislation. I do hope that the Senate will take this up and get it over to the President so that he can sign it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida for yielding.

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