Donald Trump abruptly shelved plans to sign a broad bipartisan bill aimed at lowering the cost of housing on Wednesday, demanding Congress first approve his controversial legislation to overhaul US election rules and regulations.
The president is pushing the Senate to approve the Save America Act, which would dramatically change voting regulations by requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting.
In a statement on social media, Trump said: “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.”
A day earlier, the House of Representatives approved the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which is intended to lower rents and home prices by reducing federal regulations, streamlining environmental reviews, speeding up the construction process and curbing the influence of corporate landlords by limiting their ability to purchase single-family homes.
The legislation, which was passed with large majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives after months of negotiations, amounts to one of the biggest efforts in decades to increase the supply of housing and reduce prices. On Wednesday morning, however, Trump claimed it was of “minor importance”.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, blasted Trump’s decision, saying: “It’s utterly amazing. Trump is running away from one of the very few accomplishments could actually help the American people.”
Democrats and Republicans had both cheered the bill, which was approved ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which concerns about affordability are expected to loom large in the minds of the voters who will decide control of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s term.
“The Save Act will not pass, Donald Trump. Get on board with this housing bill,” Schumer said, predicting that if the president were to veto it, Congress would have the votes to override him.
Trump had been scheduled to sign the measure at the Capitol, then attend a lunch with Senate Republicans that was seen as an opportunity to clear up a logjam that has blocked renewal of a key foreign surveillance law.
after newsletter promotion
Democrats had refused to support reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), which expired earlier this month, in protest of the president’s appointment of an inexperienced loyalist, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence.
A path forward appeared to emerge when the president announced the nomination of New York attorney Jay Clayton for the intelligence position, only to derail his confirmation last week by saying he would not allow him to take the job until the Senate passed the Save America Act.
Though the House of Representatives had approved the measure in February largely along party lines, it has no path to passage in the Senate, where Democrats can use the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold to block its advancement.
