A sweeping housing bill created unlikely allies on Capitol Hill this week, as Arizona’s left- and right-wing members of Congress joined together to pass a bill aimed at keeping big investors out of the country’s housing market.
But Grand Canyon State lawmakers accounted for more than their fair share of “no” votes with three House Republicans from Arizona turning their thumbs down.
The U.S. House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on June 23 with a final tally of 358-32. The Senate passed the bill 85-5 the day before.
It was Congress’ first major legislation on the issue in years.
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President Donald Trump has since announced he will block the bill unless Congress approves a separate, controversial voter ID proposal that has stalled in the Senate.
GOP Reps. David Schweikert, Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona were among just 32 lawmakers who voted against the housing legislation.
Five Arizona members of Congress voted in favor of the bill. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar did not take part in the vote, but said it was an error because of a technical malfunction in his voting equipment and he supports the legislation.
The bill doesn’t contain new spending, but it’s designed to boost the country’s supply of homes. The provisions include streamlining environmental review for homebuilding, creating guidelines for local jurisdictions when it comes to housing policy, and restricting how many homes big investors can own, a trend that some economists believe is driving up the cost of housing.
Between its focus on Wall Street investors and other economic reforms, the bill scrambled the typical political alliances that usually shape high-profile Capitol Hill legislation.
It drew bipartisan support during a midterm election year dominated by the issue of affordability.
Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, a staunch progressive, praised the bill as “an important step towards addressing the housing crisis by expanding affordable housing supply, supporting homebuyers, and combating the growing role of private equity and corporate investors that are buying up thousands of homes and driving up rents.”
Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a conservative Arizona Republican, agreed.
“Too many families are being priced out while competing against large investment firms,” he wrote. “It was beyond time to address this head on and stand up for homebuyers.”
Arizona gubernatorial candidates both turned down bill
Though it created a rare moment of unity on Capitol Hill, the bill fared poorly among the top two contenders for Arizona governor.
Biggs has made housing affordability a key part of his platform as he asks voters to elect him governor, and blasted Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs for not doing enough to bring down housing costs.
In particular he’s taken aim at Hobbs’ moratorium on new construction in areas near Phoenix that relied on groundwater, which has been struck down by a court.
Still, Biggs couldn’t find enough to like in Congress’ first major housing affordability package in at least 30 years.
“This bill included expanded government programs and subsidies that do not address the root causes of rising housing costs,” Biggs’ gubernatorial campaign spokesperson Drew Sexton said in a statement, which went on to repeat Biggs’ stump speech to voters worried about housing costs.
“Congressman Biggs wants to focus on removing the red tape and permitting barriers standing in the way of home construction, reform our State Land Department to actually reduce scarcity and bring down housing costs for Arizonans, and improve efficiency in places like the Arizona Department of Housing to allow cities and towns to move forward with projects that work best for their communities,” the statement said.
Schweikert, too, was turned off by the measure.
He has said Arizona’s state trust lands in urban areas are ripe for development that has not taken place because of “mismanagement.” Allowing more access to that real estate would bolster the housing supply, he said.
“Congressman Schweikert is a free market conservative who believes in market solutions to fix the housing problem,” Chris Baker, Schweikert’s aide, said in a written statement to The Republic. “This bill is nothing but more government that does nothing to build more houses.”
Hobbs, meanwhile, was quick to urge the president to put his signature on the housing measure, what she called the “kind of bipartisan problem-solving Arizonans want from Washington.”
“The President should sign it into law instead of letting six-year-old election conspiracy theories stand in the way of commonsense, bipartisan legislation,” she said on social media.
Arizona Democrats’ statewide coordinated campaign was more pointed in directly blaming Biggs and Schweikert for opposing the bill.
“Arizona working families are once again forced to shoulder the expensive, cost-hiking effects of their unpopular DC agenda,” spokesperson Nicholas Simões Machado said in a statement.
An aide to Crane did not return a request for comment on his “no” vote.
Political alliances come and go amid Trump shake-up
The bipartisan celebration on the issue was short-lived.
The president’s decision to hold up the legislation immediately sparked a firestorm from Democrats, who ripped the announcement as political gamesmanship on a pocketbook issue.
Trump has said he will not sign the package unless Congress also approves the SAVE Act, a package of election reforms requiring citizenship proof and voter ID. Voting advocates have argued the reforms would make it harder for millions of people to vote. It has passed the House but languished in the Senate.
“Trump has one of the most comprehensive bipartisan housing bills sitting on his desk — a bill that would lower housing costs and expand homeownership opportunities for Americans — yet he refuses to sign it,” Arizona Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton wrote.
“He should stop holding relief for families hostage and sign this legislation so more Arizonans can afford a home and achieve the American dream of homeownership.”
Reporting by Laura Gersony and Stacey Barchenger, Arizona Republic
