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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions legislation such as 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, members such as Elizabeth Warren.
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June 22, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextThe PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
H.R. 6644
Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I rise today in support of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. We are closer than ever to passing the biggest housing bill since 1990, when the average price of a home in America sold for $150,000. Today, 36 years later, the average home is selling for over $500,000.
of families. The median age of a first-time home buyer is now at an alltime high, and it is no secret why this has happened. Our Nation has a shortage of millions of homes.
home. Americans can't afford to rent either. More than a million evictions were filed just last year, and, meanwhile, private equity has swooped in to outbid families for homes and then turn around and jack up the rent on tenants.
generations of Americans have seen their dreams of home ownership slip out of reach, while Wall Street rakes in the profits.
politics or why they don't trust Congress, they will often say something like: It just all feels like it is rigged.
about this for years. But, today, Congress is taking a big step toward fixing it.
struggling to find a place they can afford. Elected leaders understand the problem and are actually doing something to try to solve it.
gotten in the way of building more housing and building it fast. It represents an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that we
to build more housing and to repair the housing we already have. For the first time ever, this bill will stop private equity from buying up single-family homes. Wow.
has come in and just taken over industry after industry after industry, stripping it for parts and running those businesses into the ground. Congress has never before held private equity accountable for anything. Today, that changes. No longer will private equity firms come in with an all-cash offer to snap up a house while a family loses out on their dream.
ground on legislation that actually helps the American people. Importantly, it proves that bipartisan legislation doesn't have to be the weakest, most milquetoast agreement that doesn't offend anyone or do too much to help anyone either. It proves that we can legislate by taking really good ideas from every member of the Banking Committee— Democrats and Republicans—from across the Senate, from across the House, from mayors and local governments, from housing experts and advocates, and instead of just beating each other down to strip out anything that anybody in that group doesn't like, we add in even more good ideas until we have the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years.
U.S. Senate. Today, we are doing something that will make a real difference in people's lives.
this effort and who kept us on task at all times. If it would help families, he said he was for it, and he helped make that happen. I am grateful for that.
big, but our housing prices are even bigger. We have more work to do, and I hope that today's vote is only the first of many votes to follow to continue our efforts to lower the cost of housing all across America. Let's get this done.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes prior to the scheduled vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Madam President, I thank the ranking member for her kind comments and for her hard work on behalf of the American people.
Committee herself, that the answer is that there are some things that are not broken to the point they cannot be fixed in the Nation's Capital. One of those things is our ability to not think left or right, blue or red, Black or White, rich or poor; it is to think about and focus on the journey many of us have taken to become U.S. Senators.
Carolina, in a little place called North Charleston. Without any question, having grown up in a single-parent household mired in poverty, the issue of housing is particularly interesting to me.
I shared a bedroom and a bed for years in a little 700-square foot, rented unit by my grandparents. I will tell you that the American dream just seemed out of reach for so many in my neighborhood—certainly for those of us living on Meeting Street Road, which was a dirt road during those times.
square feet or so, and my brother and I had the pleasure of having our own room that was separated from my mother's. That is what I called a blessing from the God, the King of Kings himself—without any question.
and necessary. They taught me faith in the Lord, perseverance through hard times, and opportunity. Those three together can transform the hardest of hard circumstances, and that belief has guided my work on this very important issue of housing.
in that they are delaying marriage, they are delaying having kids, they are delaying putting down roots—not because they lack ambition but because housing prices are too darned high and housing supply is too low. Rent is too high, starter homes are too hard to find, and the American dream slips further and further away for far too many.
Mr. FETTERMAN. Katie, whoo!
Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina. Even the Senator from Pennsylvania is so excited that he had to recognize the Presiding Officer. I will simply say that the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act even gets the junior Senator from Pennsylvania's vote. You may ask yourself, why is that the case? I have four really important reasons that is truly the case.
Second, it unlocks the housing supply. When you put more housing supply on the market, more people have a chance to become a first-time home buyer. Today—today—today—the first-time home buyer is 40 years old. It is just too old.
Our bill protects taxpayers. Some have asked the question, how does this make housing more affordable? I want to highlight two provisions— one that the ranking member talked about, which is what President Trump said during his State of the Union. It is simple: Houses should be for people and not for corporations. We make it easier for people to have access to housing because of the provision that President Trump placed in this legislation.
we embedded in this bill that simply says something that is remarkable from Congress, remarkable from the Senate, and that is, frankly, common sense to everybody outside of Washington, DC: If you build more housing, you should get more incentives. If you don't build more housing, you should lose those incentives, and they should go to the places where they are building more housing. Yes, I recognize this is common sense everywhere but here.
of embedding in this housing legislation important priorities that I believe will make housing more affordable, more accessible, and, frankly, that will help banks—community banks, which are the primary places you go for a mortgage—be more engaged in this process. Once again, this was a bipartisan, bicameral issue to do the work of the people.
I will close with this because I know my 5 minutes is nearly up. If we would just focus on the American people and listen when they speak, we would remember two things: No. 1, they hire us, and we work for them. No. 2, like E.F. Hutton—the Presiding Officer is too young to know who he is—when E.F. Hutton speaks, we ought to listen. Our E.F. Hutton is called the American people, and when we listen, we bring this Nation closer together.
Public service should not be about those of us in public service; it should be about the journey we took. For me, that is as a kid born into poverty to a great mother who believed in faith, perseverance, and opportunity. If we do our part, more kids today who are being raised in similar situations and circumstances that I was might have hope in the American dream.
Somewhere, you can read faith, hope, and love. Hope is not a bad second place, though. Let's provide more hope and more results for more Americans by simply doing the right thing.
Amendment Withdrawn
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Vote on Motion to Concur
The question occurs on the motion to concur with an amendment.
The yeas were previously ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.
Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Curtis),the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young).
Further, if present and voting: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) would have voted “yea” and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted “nay.”
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray), the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Slotkin), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.
The result was announced—yeas 85, nays 5, as follows:
Rollcall Vote No. 182 Leg.
YEAS—85
Alsobrooks
Armstrong
Baldwin
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Cantwell
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Coons
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Daines
Duckworth
Durbin
Ernst
Fetterman
Fischer
Gallego
Gillibrand
Grassley
Hagerty
Hassan
Hawley
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Kaine
Kelly
Kennedy
Kim
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Lujan
Lummis
Markey
Marshall
McCormick
Merkley
Moody
Moran
Moreno
Murkowski
Murphy
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Ricketts
Risch
Rosen
Rounds
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schmitt
Schumer
Scott (SC)
Shaheen
Sheehy
Smith
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Wicker
Wyden
NAYS—5
Johnson
Lee
Paul
Scott (FL)
Tuberville
NOT VOTING—10
Bennet
Cruz
Curtis
Graham
Justice
McConnell
Murray
Slotkin
Whitehouse
Young
The motion was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ricketts). Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table.
The majority leader.