WASHINGTON — A sweeping housing bill sailed through the Senate on Monday and is expected to move quickly in the House early this week, potentially giving both parties a win on the issue of lowering home costs.

The Senate passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, 85-5. An aide to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the House could act on the legislation as soon as Tuesday under suspension of the rules, which requires backing from two-thirds of members present and voting for approval.

The bill could be signed into law by the end of the week — a bipartisan bright spot in an otherwise bleak year for reaching agreements across the aisle.

One key to securing President Donald Trump’s backing was inclusion of a top White House housing priority: a ban on institutional investor ownership of more than 350 single-family homes, with certain exceptions including for properties built specifically to be leased.

Inclusion of that language, which went through several iterations in talks with industry groups, won approval from populist lawmakers across Capitol Hill, including Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who rarely agrees with Trump on anything.

Voter ID hurdle

Still, the ride may not be fully smooth. A group of House GOP conservatives are demanding Senate passage of their signature voter identification bill, dubbed the Save America Act, despite zero bipartisan support in that chamber.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Monday she’d rounded up 25 GOP lawmakers on a pledge not to vote for the housing bill or any Senate-passed bills, unless the voter ID bill is attached. That’s already a dozen more than voted against the House’s most recent bipartisan housing bill, before the Senate’s latest changes.

Trump himself has pushed for an expanded version of the voter ID measure, with unrelated provisions on transgender policy, and has said he won’t support renewing now-lapsed Section 702 surveillance authorities without it.

Still, though two-thirds is a high bar, housing bill backers can lose many more than 25 votes and still pass the bill under suspension of the rules with the help of Democratic votes. Under a rule, backers would face the bill likely being blocked by GOP defectors in a procedural vote where lawmakers typically vote along party lines.

The White House has said that Trump would sign the current housing package without the voter ID bill attached, however. Sources familiar with the planning said a signing ceremony could occur as soon as Wednesday if the House clears it Tuesday.

Long time coming

The Senate and House have been working on the expansive package for almost a year. An agreement reached last week between the chambers resolved the last remaining differences and resulted in the final bill being voted on this week.

Those disagreements, including on the scope of the institutional investor provisions, had been holding up a measure that has attained overwhelming bipartisan votes each time it came up on the respective floors over the last couple months.

The Senate Banking Committee approved the first version of the Senate housing bill last July. The House initially passed its bill in February, 390-9.

The Senate passed an amended version the next month, 89-10. The House then countered with a revised version that passed overwhelmingly in May, 390-13.

The legislation contains about four dozen provisions based on stand-alone measures, most of which have bipartisan co-sponsors. It aims to increase housing supply and decrease costs for a living expense that often ranks at the top of voters’ affordability concerns.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., both cited affordability when praising the bill before the last Senate procedural vote on June 18. Members of both parties also are likely to bring it up on the campaign trail this fall.

The bill would streamline housing regulations to bolster the construction of affordable housing in part through increasing a cap on banks’ investments, change rules to increase manufactured housing and encourage localities to ease zoning rules and more. It also would temporarily ban a central bank digital currency.

‘Listen to the industry’

The curb on large investors was a prominent sticking point between the Senate and House.

An earlier House version differed from an earlier Senate version by refusing to cap the time some institutional investors can hold properties they build to rent. The previous Senate version would have required them to sell the properties within seven years or pay a penalty. Both chambers define institutional investors as those holding 350 or more homes.

A large swath of the housing industry withdrew its support for the bill until the House version of the large investor provision made it into the final bill.

Will Cooper, CEO of WNC & Associates, an affordable housing developer and investor, said the Senate language froze the build-to-rent market after the chamber passed an earlier version of the bill.

“It was a good demonstration of why Congress needs to listen to the industry — and they heard the industry loud and clear on that provision,” Cooper said. “They took the time to do [the bill] right, and it was worth the time.”

—Valerie Yurk and Peter Cohn contributed to this report.

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