President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his planned signing of a bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday, saying he will keep the measure from becoming law until Congress passes an unrelated bill imposing new restrictions on voter registration and mail-in voting.
The housing bill, passed on Tuesday, aims to lower the cost of buying a home by building more housing and restricting large corporations from buying single-family homes to turn them into rental properties. The measure drew unusual degrees of bipartisan support, reflecting the political power of Americans’ concerns about affordability and the cost of living.
Trump announced the cancellation of the bill signing in a Truth Social post at 10:26 a.m. ET, about an hour and a half before the ceremony, with the measure’s congressional sponsors was set to begin.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The voting bill has long been a priority for Trump, and the House passed it in February. But with opposition from Democrats and a few Republicans, it lacks the 60 votes necessary to pass in the Senate.
By comparison, Trump said in another Truth Social post, the housing bill is “of minor importance.” He had recently described the bill as “the most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation” in the country’s history.
He punctuated his criticism of the housing bill with a racist slur about one of its sponsors, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and insults of Democrats and “bad Republicans.”
“The Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump wrote Wednesday morning. “That is what Americans, both Dumocrats, Republicans, and everyone else, care about. Get the bad Republicans to approve it or, better yet, Terminate the Filibuster and approve it, AND EVERYTHING ELSE REPUBLICANS HAVE EVER DREAMED OF.”
Appearing on CNBC, Warren criticized Trump for canceling the bill signing.
“This just doesn’t make any sense, other than whatever it is he wants to do is a complete indifference to the cost squeeze on American families and to genuine efforts to do something about it,” Warren said. “You know, he could be over here trying to claim a victory lap, and instead he’s saying, no, no, he doesn’t want anything to do with it.”
The housing bill still could become law, even without Trump’s signature. When Congress is in session, passed legislation becomes law 10 days after it is sent to the president unless he vetoes it. The bill passed in both the House and the Senate by wide margins and lawmakers could easily override a veto.
Second unexpected announcement
This was the second time in a week Trump stunned members of Congress — including those in his own party — with late departures from scheduled moves.
Last Thursday, he used an early morning Truth Social post to cancel a confirmation hearing for his nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton.
Both Democratic and Republican senators had strongly criticized Trump’s interim pick for the intelligence role, federal housing official Bill Pulte, who has no experience in intelligence and is considered a loyalist to the president. Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was a more popular choice.
But, reportedly without consulting Senate Republican leaders, Trump delayed Clayton’s confirmation hearing, demanding that the Senate instead pass the SAVE Act.
The nomination is now on hold, and Pulte took over as the acting intelligence director last week.
What’s the latest on the SAVE America Act?
The SAVE Act has remained in limbo inside the Senate since March.
Both the House and the Senate introduced versions of the bill in January. The House bill passed in February, 218-214, with all but one Democrat voting against it.
In mid-March, the Senate began debating the bill but it quickly became clear that Senate Republicans could not muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster and take a final vote on passage.
Nearly all Democrats in both chambers have criticized the bill, saying requiring a birth certificate or passport to register to vote — plus a photo ID to vote — would disenfranchise some voters.
Republicans tried to attach the SAVE America Act as an amendment to a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, but the amendment failed on a 48-50 vote. Several Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against the amendment. A second attempt led to the same result in early June, with the same Republicans voting against it.
Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., has introduced the SAVE America Through REAL ID Act as a workaround to pass parts of the bill. The act funds REAL ID infrastructure rather than mandating proof-of-citizenship rules. This structure is designed to survive the Senate’s reconciliation process and would require only a simple majority, but it restricts the bill to budgetary matters.
But critics have noted that states issue REAL ID cards to lawful permanent residents who can’t vote, so the bill wouldn’t fully address the citizenship issue Republicans say is the reason to pass the SAVE America Act.
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