UPDATE: 12:35 p.m. (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned White House signing ceremony for the bipartisan housing bill Wednesday, saying he would hold off until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, his election legislation requiring proof of citizenship and voter identification.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The ROAD to Housing measure has passed both chambers of Congress and is awaiting Trump’s signature to be signed into law.
9:00 a.m.
Congress just passed its biggest housing package in decades, but short-term rentals are not directly in the crosshairs — unless you’re a very large investor.
The House approved the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in a 358-32 vote Tuesday, one day after it cleared the Senate 85-5.
The bill now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature.
The package combines more than 50 provisions aimed at speeding up construction, reducing development costs and expanding the nation’s housing supply.
The bill’s biggest move for real estate investors targets the largest players in the single-family rental market.
Institutional investors that already own at least 350 homes would be banned from buying more properties. As The Associated Press reported in its coverage of the House vote, the measure is designed to reduce corporate competition for available homes, but it does not force companies to sell the properties they already own.
The restriction could affect some large rental portfolios. Most individual vacation rental owners, however, would fall well below the 350-home threshold.
The bill leaves vacation rental rules to local governments
The legislation does not create a federal permit, tax or operating standard for short-term rental properties.
It also does not order cities to convert short-term rentals into long-term housing.
Its impact on the industry could come indirectly.
The bill creates new incentives for local governments to approve more housing, streamline permitting and rethink zoning rules.
A Bipartisan Policy Center breakdown of the final deal says one program would offer $200 million annually to communities that demonstrate measurable housing growth.
That could give cities more tools to address housing shortages through new construction rather than relying only on restrictions targeting existing vacation rentals.
Still, local governments would retain control over their own STR ordinances.
The legislation, which has been led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Scott of South Carolina in the Senate and Reps. Maxine Waters of California and French Hill of Arkansas in the House, is set to become the largest housing package signed into law in decades
“This is a very rare occurrence to have successive bipartisan votes across both chambers on versions of this bill, and it finally seems to be reaching the finish line,” Francis Torres, housing and infrastructure director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told TIME ahead of the bill’s house passage. “This bill is the most serious that Congress has gotten about housing reforms in a generation.”
