US Rep. Hill’s housing measure enjoys major bipartisan support

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock, lead sponsor of a measure aimed at housing affordability saw his legislation pass the House with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Hill said the 390-9 vote for the Housing for the 21st Century Act showed that Congress can come together to solve problems affecting Americans.

“It was, I think, a good statement that we can work together in the House on a bipartisan basis on important policy issues. One of those is trying to lower the cost of housing and make the HUD programs that we have more effective for taxpayers, more effective for their mission,” said Hill.

“We linked in the 21st century Housing Act our reforms to HUD with how we can make community banks more successful, have more capital to deliver to local communities. I think that accounts for why we got 390 votes,” he added.

Some of the changes in the bill address HUD building codes, modular building techniques, and building offsite exceptions.

“We also removed a longstanding ancient provision that a manufactured home had to have a chassis like it was truly a mobile home from the earliest days of that product,” said Hill. “We also gave flexibility to cities in the community development block grant program that some of those funds could be used also to aid home construction.”

This week, the House voted on a bill to curtail the President’s powers to use tariffs. Hill and Arkansas’ other three Congressional members voted against the effort, but a combination of Democrats and a few GOP representatives approved the resolution. It is unlikely to go much further as it needs 60 votes in the Senate and must survive a Presidential veto.

“This bill is, I think, piecemeal with what I want to see the administration do. The Trump administration and Congress should renew trade promotion authority at large, which governs how the administration and the legislative branch work together on tariffs. That bill has expired. Joe Biden let it expire. I think we should renew it,” he said.

Hill also noted that a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision might shift the dynamics of the Congressional tariff debate.

“The Supreme Court is going to rule on the case against some of Trump’s tariffs and I think that should inform Congress as to the best direction we should take,” he said. “Finally, this is a bill that was put forward by the minority, which in a narrow House turns the floor over to the opposition political party when I think we should be leading on policies like this and not voting for the Democratic policy initiative.”

Rep. Hill also discussed events surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Listen to his full interview at this link.