Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, on Thursday moved to order the Road to Housing Act of 2025 reported to the full Senate; the committee voted 24-0 to advance the bipartisan package.

The bill is a multipart package of roughly 40 provisions that committee members said aims to increase housing supply, reduce regulatory barriers and fund repairs and vouchers. Ranking Member Sen. Elizabeth Warren said rising housing costs represent most families' largest monthly expense and praised the bipartisan effort to lower housing costs. "We need more housing options everywhere for everyone," Warren said.

Why it matters: Committee members described the package as a broad attempt to address a national shortfall in housing supply, citing an estimated shortage of about 7,000,000 units. Sponsors said the measure combines reauthorizations, program refinements and pilot programs intended to lower building costs, speed recovery after disasters and incentivize localities to increase housing stock.

Key provisions and discussion: Senators emphasized many component bills folded into the package. Members said the bill includes reforms to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster recovery program, reauthorization of HUD's HOME program, an Innovation Fund and a program described in the markup as the PRICE program to preserve affordability in manufactured housing communities. Senators cited measures to streamline inspections across federal programs, improve appraisal reliability and address appraiser workforce shortages, and expand financing for modular and manufactured housing.

Several members highlighted rural housing measures and coordination fixes. Sen. Tina Smith said legislation in the package targets roughly 400,000 affordable rural housing units nationwide and listed state-level unit counts for several states. Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts and others praised a provision, described as the Streamlining Rural Housing Act, that would require HUD and USDA Rural Development to enter a memorandum of understanding to align environmental review and inspection standards to reduce duplicative processes.

Members also debated incentives tied to CDBG: several senators described a "carrot-and-stick" approach in which local recipients that increase housing stock over five years would receive extra funds while jurisdictions that do not meet the median could lose 10% of their CDBG allotment. Sen. John Kennedy said he was concerned that communities might need more time to adapt to such rules.

An amendment by Sen. Cynthia Lummis to require the Federal National Mortgage Association to consider recognized digital assets in mortgage risk assessments was called up and then withdrawn by the sponsor, who said she intended to "plant a seed" for later consideration.

Vote and next steps: The clerk called the roll; the recorded result was 24 ayes, 0 nays. The chairman asked unanimous consent to allow staff to make technical and conforming changes and to waive the committee rule; there were no objections. The committee ordered the Road to Housing Act of 2025 reported to the full Senate.

What members asked staff to do or watch: Several senators said they would continue work on specific items not included or requiring further attention—examples cited in committee remarks included further deregulation of HOME program rules, protections against federal overreach in local land-use decisions, expansion of voucher programs and measures to address housing on tribal lands. Senators also referenced using agency coordination (HUD, USDA, VA) to improve program delivery.

The committee moved into and then adjourned its executive session after completing the markup and votes. The committee record shows broad bipartisan support in the markup stage; floor consideration and any changes will follow if leadership schedules the bill for full Senate action.