Trump threatens to sabotage housing bill to push ‘National Emergency’ SAVE America Act

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would hold a bipartisan housing affordability bill hostage in another attempt to force the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, his pet legislative project that election experts call “the most restrictive voting bill ever.”  

Just hours before a scheduled bill signing ceremony, Trump took to social media to cancel it “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”

The House passed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act in a 358-32 vote Tuesday, following an 85-5 vote in the Senate a day earlier. Democrats uniformly voted in favor of the bill, while some Republicans voted against it. 

If signed by Trump, the bill would try to increase the housing supply — and thus drive down costs — by streamlining environmental reviews for homebuilders, recommending zoning reforms, and boosting federal subsidies.  

In another post Wednesday morning, Trump said the housing package “is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”

Passed by the House in February, the SAVE America Act stalled in the Senate despite a weeks-long floor debate and Trump and his allies’ constant attempts to pressure Republicans to pass it. The measure would require voters to show documentary proof of citizenship — like a U.S. passport or birth certificate — when they register and show voter ID when they cast ballots. It would also force states to turn over registration records to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and conduct monthly purges of their voter rolls. The proposal would additionally institute bans on universal mail-in voting, trans athletes in women’s sports and gender-affirming care for minors. 

During a CNBC interview Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the housing bill’s cosponsors, said Trump’s decision “doesn’t make any sense.”

“It is a complete indifference to the cost squeeze on American families and to genuine efforts to do something about it,” Warren added. “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. It’s because he doesn’t care about American families.”

As Trump was abruptly threatening to blow up a rare legislative accomplishment during this historically unproductive Congress, Rep. French Hill (R-La.), another bill cosponsor, was touting the work both chambers and the president put into it, seemingly unaware of his social media rant against it. 

This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to condition his support for unrelated legislation on passage of the SAVE America Act. In March, Trump told Republicans to refuse any spending deals with Democrats over ending a partial shutdown of DHS. He also wanted Republicans to add the bill to a budget reconciliation package earlier this month, but the Senate shot that down, too.