US President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill that had cleared both chambers of Congress by veto-proof margins, conditioning his signature on Senate passage of a controversial voter-eligibility measure.
Trump announced the move on Truth Social hours before a scheduled Capitol Hill signing ceremony, writing that the event was cancelled “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT”—the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which he labeled a national emergency measure. He had earlier dismissed the housing measure as of “minor importance.”
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed the House 358–32 on Tuesday after clearing the Senate a day earlier. It would bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes and loosen building regulations to expand supply and ease affordability.
Housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years, making home ownership impossible for many Americans. According to data released this month by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, median new and existing home prices have reached upwards of $400,000 nationwide. The report notes:
Existing home prices are up 54 percent nationwide since 2020, and remain nearly 5 times median incomes—far above the standard ratio of 3 that held in the 1990s. Additionally, with interest rates holding over 6 percent, payments on the median-priced home are fully $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $1,700 in early 2020. Households would need an income of over $!20,000 to afford this payment, up from $66,000 in 2020.
In accordance with Article 1, Section 7 of the US Constitution, the president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign or veto a bill. Because both chambers passed the measure by margins exceeding two-thirds, a conventional veto could be overridden. A pocket veto, which cannot be overridden, is available only if Congress adjourns before the window closes. Congress begins a two-week recess Friday but plans pro forma sessions, which generally prevents a formal adjournment and would instead let the bill become law without Trump’s signature if he takes no action.
The SAVE America Act would require documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register and photo ID to vote in federal elections, which supporters cast as a safeguard against noncitizen voting.
Noncitizen voting is already illegal and, studies show, vanishingly rare. Critics warn the documentary requirements could disenfranchise millions of eligible citizens who lack ready access to such papers (the Brennan Center estimates this could affect some 21 million voters), while exposing election officials to criminal penalties for good-faith mistakes. The Bipartisan Policy Center, which supports the goal, has noted most election offices aren’t equipped to verify the authenticity of birth certificates and passports.
The House passed the act in February, but it has stalled in the Senate, where Republicans lack the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Democrats and voting-rights advocates characterize it as voter suppression. Trump has pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to eliminate the filibuster; Thune has declined, saying the votes are not there.
Emphasizing the bill’s bipartisan support, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a housing-bill co-sponsor, criticized the cancellation in a filmed statement posted to X:
We should be here today to celebrate, because we should have a housing bill that is now law. Instead, we are here with a call to action, and the call is, sign the bill, Mr. President. Americans want housing costs to go down.
