Braun bill would roll back Biden administration housing mandate that adds significant costs for home buyers

Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 7:05 PM

Last week, Senator Mike Braun introduced legislation to repeal a Biden administration Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandate for new housing construction that would add significant costs to the purchase of new homes.

Senators Marsha Blackburn, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis, Shelley Moore Capito, Roger Marshall, Pete Ricketts, Eric Schmitt, and Todd Young co-sponsored the legislation.

“Buying a home is more expensive than ever for Americans. We shouldn’t be making them even more expensive with government mandates that could add as much as $31,000 to the price of a new home. My bill will repeal this new Biden administration mandate so we can lower the cost of housing for American families," - Senator Braun.

The HOUSE Act would:

Repeals the HUD/USDA Final Determination, and requires the agencies to revert to the 2009 standards already in effect;
Prohibits VA from implementing a similar mandate for VA mortgages;
Clarifies that FHFA has no statutory authority to impose similar mandates;
And reforms the underlying law by prohibiting HUD and USDA from adopted new efficiency mandates unless 26 states have already adopted similar standards.

Read the bill here.