House leaders tout housing bill to lower costs as White House delays signing pending election bill

House Republican leaders used a press conference to promote a housing bill they said will lower building costs and hold the Department of Housing and Urban Development more accountable, and to announce that President Trump postponed a signing ceremony until the administration sees movement on a separate election-integrity measure.

Chairman Hill, introduced in the transcript as the committee's chairman on the housing package, said the bill "lowers the cost per square foot, gives incentives to blue states and red states to cut their burdensome zoning and development regimes," and directs new building-code standards for manufactured and modular housing that he said the federal government has not legislated since 1982. He told reporters the measure removes some environmental-review barriers to allow local housing projects to proceed faster.

"This bill lowers the cost per square foot," Chairman Hill said. "We're legislating for the first time since 1982 new building codes for the Department of Housing and Urban Development on manufactured housing, on modular housing." The chairman described the bill as a supply-side approach intended to expand access across rural and urban areas.

Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the White House is delaying a signing event for the housing bill until the "Save America Act" — an election-integrity bill his office and the president favor — is advanced. A reporter asked about President Trump's decision; Johnson said, "I spoke to the president for 20 minutes before I went in and gave that rousing speech to the House Republicans this morning. He... has expressed his the priority and the preference of the Save America Act." Johnson said Republicans plan to pursue a reconciliation vehicle that could include related grant programs and described the effort as reconciliation "3.0."

When asked how long the signing might be delayed, Johnson estimated the delay would be brief: "You're talking about days... 10 days is my estimation he'll do it within that 10 day window," he said.

Johnson and other speakers tied the housing bill to broader Republican priorities, including HUD oversight, increased access to community bank financing for homebuilding and limits on institutional investment in single-family housing. The transcript did not include detail on the final funding amounts, the exact structure of any grant program, or a statutory citation for the authority that would link the election-integrity measures to housing funds.

The speakers said the House passed the housing bill the night before the press conference and emphasized they would continue to press for related measures in forthcoming reconciliation and appropriations efforts. The press conference ended with Johnson reiterating that funding design and grant specifics are "still being worked through," and that a signing could occur once the White House sees progress on the Save America Act.

The transcript contains no formal vote tally or enacted statutory citations for the housing bill or for the reconciliation vehicle; timelines and funding details for any grant program tied to the election-integrity proposals were described as "to be determined."