House Passes Bipartisan Housing Bill Targeting Corporate Homebuyers
The House delivered a massive bipartisan victory Wednesday, passing a housing bill designed to expand homeownership, lower costs, and limit institutional investors from snapping up single-family homes.
The amended 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed by a commanding 396-13 vote, sending the legislation to the Senate and giving Republicans a potential cost-of-living win heading into the midterm elections.
House leaders framed the bill as a direct response to the housing affordability crisis squeezing millions of Americans.
Speaker Mike Johnson argued the stakes could not be clearer.
“Increased housing costs and lack of quality supply are two issues that impact nearly every American family,” Johnson said.
He called the legislation a “strong bipartisan package that will put more American families into homes.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise made a similar argument.
“This is something that every American in this country is going to be happy to see, to have lower housing costs,” Scalise said.
At the center of the legislation is a provision aimed at institutional investors.
The House version preserves a ban on large corporate investors buying newly built single-family homes, a priority backed by the Trump administration.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill said the bill directly aligns with President Donald Trump’s housing agenda.
“This bill prioritizes American families by expanding homeownership, enhancing affordability, reducing burdensome regulations that drive up costs, and increasing housing supply nationwide,” Hill said.
“Importantly, it delivers on President Trump’s call to limit institutional investors from competing with the American people as they seek to purchase a home.”
A White House official confirmed support.
“The White House supports the House’s housing bill thanks to the changes that were made,” the official said.
The House, however, rejected a tougher Senate-backed provision that would have forced large institutional landlords already holding single-family rental homes to sell them off within seven years.
That proposal had support from progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but House lawmakers opted for a narrower approach that targets future purchases without forcing divestitures that could disrupt renters.
Polling suggests the political move may be popular.
A recent survey found seven in ten voters support banning major investors owning more than 350 homes from buying additional residential properties.
Despite the overwhelming margin, conservative opposition did emerge.
The 13 Republican “no” votes came largely from Freedom Caucus-aligned members objecting not to the housing provisions, but to language dealing with central bank digital currencies.
Rep. Warren Davidson explained his opposition in stark terms.
“A temporary ban is the worst of both worlds: political cover today, a clear runway tomorrow,” Davidson wrote.
“Make it permanent, or take it out.”
The provision temporarily blocks a government-backed digital currency through 2030, but some conservatives fear that simply delays rather than prevents future implementation.
Now the bill moves to the Senate, where its path becomes more uncertain.
Because the House amended the Senate’s earlier version instead of passing it unchanged, lawmakers in the upper chamber must now decide whether to accept the changes, negotiate further or stall the package entirely.
The biggest flashpoint could be the removal of the forced-sale requirement for institutional landlords.
The bill also faces the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, always a major obstacle.
Still, the lopsided House vote gives the legislation strong momentum.
For Republicans, the politics are straightforward.
Housing affordability remains a top concern for voters dealing with high mortgage rates, tight inventory and growing competition from deep-pocketed corporate buyers, Fox News reported.
For Democrats, opposing a bill aimed at limiting investor competition in the housing market could also carry political risk.
Whether the Senate quickly advances the legislation or lets it bog down in procedural fights could determine whether Congress delivers a tangible housing win before voters head to the polls.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
