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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORENO. Madam President, I rise today to address a crisis that strikes at the heart of what makes our Nation exceptional: the American dream.

Like many who came before me, I came to America with my family to find my version of that American dream. For generations, the catalyst of that dream has been simple and powerful: the ability to graduate from high school, get a good job, get married, buy a home, raise a family in a safe community, send your kids to good schools, and retire with dignity.

I think of my father-in-law, who joined U.S. Steel straight out of high school, bought a nice home in a suburb in Indiana. He raised a family of three kids, all on a single salary.

The question facing this body is: Does the American dream still exist and are we still willing to fight for it?

Ensuring this lives in America should unify all elected officials, regardless of political party. But for too many families--whether it is teachers in Ohio classrooms, nurses in Cincinnati hospitals, factory workers in Cleveland, or truckdrivers hauling goods across our State-- that dream is increasingly out of reach. Home prices have skyrocketed. Starter homes have vanished, and entire neighborhoods are being built not for homeowners but for distant corporations to rent out indefinitely.

This is the explosive growth of a new industry called the single- family build-to-rent industry. Massive Wall Street firms, private equity giants, and institutional investors are constructing whole communities of detached homes, only to lock them up as permanent rentals. These aren't small landlords helping fill a gap. These are corporate empires turning housing into just another asset class, just a profit machine for themselves, while denying the precious supply of single-family homes from hard-working Americans.

In Ohio, this impact is real and painful. In Columbus, developments are rising as build-to-rent subdivisions. Families who could once afford modest three-bedroom homes now face monthly rents of $2,700 or more, payments that build corporate equity, not the equity for that homeowner.

In Cincinnati, prime land that should host for-sale starter homes for young families is instead covered up in bulk for rental portfolios controlled by out-of-State investors.

And in the working-class, east side neighborhoods in my hometown of Cleveland, OH, institutional and out-of-State investors have snapped up nearly half of all home purchases, turning once affordable homes into profit machines while jacking up rents and neglecting repairs and slamming the door on working families.

Every home built for rent in Ohio is one less home available for purchase, fueling fiercer competition and driving up prices even higher for everyone else.

The facts are just undeniable. The share of new family homes built specifically for rent has surged to levels far above historic norms, 10 percent in some periods of all new housing starts. Those aren't scattered units; they are planned, large-scale communities designed for institutional ownership and endless renting.

By crowding out for-sale development, they reduce inventory for first-time buyers. They push prices skyward and condemn millions to a lifetime of renting--facing higher rent, endless fees, perpetual instability, and no path to building generational wealth.

The median age of a first-time home buyer in America is now 40 years old. That was 33 just 6 years ago--up 7 years in 6. Because of that, quite frankly, the ladder to ownership has been pulled up by corporate interests.

Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American dream for a reason. Equity grows over time. Forced renting means your hard-earned dollars line someone else's pockets. I know this firsthand. Without the equity that I built in my first home, I would never have been able to buy my first business. That equity gave me the foundation to take a risk, create jobs, give back to my community, and provide for my family--the exact opportunity we are now denying to millions of Americans.

And here is the bitter irony: The executives, the developers, the owners running these build-to-rent companies always own their own homes. They don't rent. They enjoy the stability, the pride, the wealth building that home ownership provides, while denying that same opportunity to working families that power our economy and built this country.

This crisis isn't inevitable. President Donald J. Trump recognized it early and acted decisively. As he said at last month's State of the Union Address:

Homes are for people, not [for] corporations.

He made it clear: We must focus on building Main Street, not Wall Street. That is why he signed the Executive order stopping Wall Street from competing with Main Street home buyers, directing Federal Agencies to restrict support from large, institutional investors buying single- family homes that families could otherwise purchase. He called on Congress to codify and strengthen these protections.

Here in Washington, DC, highly paid political consultants--so-called experts--at think tanks have spilled much ink opining why the GOP now and Democrats before have lost support from young voters. Here is a thought: Maybe it is because young Americans know they can no longer afford to buy a home and start their own families like their parents before them did.

Let's review some data. To start with, President Trump's plan is overwhelmingly popular. A recent poll found that 58 percent of the country support this plan, including 74 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Independents. But that is not all. Poll after poll have found that President Trump is addressing a top priority for younger Americans. Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z voters struggle to cover their monthly housing costs, 74 percent of younger Americans say the cost of housing has reached a crisis level, and 73 percent of Americans blame large investors for the lack of affordable housing. The Republican Party would be fools to bury our heads in the sand.

So what does the other side say? Critics of this bill make two claims which, by the way, stand in direct contradiction. On the one hand, they claim that institutional investors don't buy enough homes to matter. This is a solution in need of a problem. On the other hand, they claim that institutional investors are so crucial to the housing market that this bill would singlehandedly dry up all kinds of home ownership supply.

So you can't have it both ways: Either you don't matter, or you do matter.

Of course, the answer is, you do matter. And that is why you saw that 7-year drop in home ownership rates among young people over the period that this industry has boomed.

So I say to my Republican colleagues and to my Democrat colleagues: This moment is a test. President Trump proved that by breaking with decades of stale, establishment-driven orthodoxy, he could build an unbeatable coalition--a coalition made up of voters who have, for decades, abandoned the GOP and who the Democrats have now completely left behind, from Black men to younger voters, to Hispanics.

So the question now is this, Will congressional Republicans hear the American people and do what it takes to sustain that coalition? Will we deliver on the promises we made--President Trump's--on the campaign trail or will we continue to let the DC establishment swamp set our agenda?

With the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan effort led by my good, dear friend Senator Tim Scott that includes critical provisions to limit large institutional investors from dominating the single-family market, we have a chance to deliver on what we promised these voters.

By building on President Trump's Executive actions--curbing their access to Federal financing and preventing them from crowding out individual buyers--we are putting families first; we are increasing paths to ownership; and ensuring more new homes are built for sale, not endless corporate rental portfolios.

It is time to get this done. New communities should be places where Ohio families and American families everywhere can own, not just rent from faceless funds.

The American dream isn't dead. It is just under siege. Thanks to President Trump's leadership--his clear vision that homes are for people, his fight to put Main Street first--we have a real chance to reclaim it.

So I urge all of my Republican colleagues, let's make home ownership attainable again for the hard-working men and women who built this country.

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Mr. MORENO. 4308 to Calendar No. 343, H.R. 6644.

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