To increase the supply of housing in America, and for other purposes.
H.R. 6644
A sweeping 59-section housing supply law that also prohibits large institutional investors (controlling 350 or more single-family homes) from purchasing additional homes, and imposes a 4-year moratorium on the Federal Reserve issuing a retail central bank digital currency — both significant non-housing policy decisions enacted inside a housing bill.
The law touches homebuyers, renters, veterans, manufactured-housing residents, community banks, institutional investors, and monetary policy simultaneously. The CBDC moratorium is the most consequential non-housing provision: it makes a statutory monetary-technology decision for the United States through 2030 by embedding it in a bipartisan housing package that passed the House 396-13, where it attracted minimal standalone scrutiny.
Directs the HUD Assistant Secretary to publish, within 3 years of enactment, non-binding guidelines recommending that states and localities reduce or eliminate parking minimums, increase floor area ratios, reduce minimum lot sizes, permit accessory dwelling units, allow by-right duplex/triplex/quadplex zoning, and streamline approval processes for by-right proposals; a multi-stakeholder task force — including planners, developers, transit authorities, and community members — must inform the guidelines.
Bill textSec. 107Prohibits entities controlling 350 or more single-family residential properties from purchasing additional single-family homes; exempts build-to-rent developments and senior living communities; enforcement runs through FHA and USDA loan restrictions on non-compliant transactions.
Bill textSec. 1001Prohibits the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Federal Reserve Banks from issuing a retail central bank digital currency, creating CBDC accounts holding monetary liabilities, or integrating CBDCs into real-time payment systems without explicit Congressional authorization; includes privacy protections barring non-consensual surveillance; the prohibition sunsets December 31, 2030.
Bill textSec. 1101Authorizes the HUD Secretary to establish, within 1 year of enactment, a pilot program for FHA mortgages up to $100,000, including direct mortgagee payments, adjusted FHA underwriting terms, and grants covering down payments, closing costs, appraisals, and title insurance; the pilot has a 4-year sunset, no new pilots may be authorized after 3 years, and the Federal Housing Commissioner must submit annual outcome reports assessing risk to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
Bill textSec. 105Exempts USDA-financed housing construction on qualified 'infill sites' from NEPA environmental review under Housing Act of 1949 sections 501, 502, 504, 515, 533, and 538; an infill site must already have existing water, sewer, and road infrastructure and must not be designated as high wildfire or flood risk or as greenfield; the USDA Secretary must report to Congress on implementation impact within 5 years.
Bill textSec. 103Requires the HUD Secretary to issue guidelines within 18 months on single-stair residential buildings, addressing fire safety, construction costs, affordability, and accessibility; authorizes competitive grants for pilot projects with a 7-year sunset; coordinates with the International Code Council for building code adoption; does not preempt state or local building codes.
Bill textSec. 102Requires servicers to offer foreclosure mitigation counseling to borrowers who are 30 or more days delinquent on FHA, VA, or USDA loans; costs of counseling for delinquent FHA borrowers are charged to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund; requires 60-day notice before denying renewal of housing counselor assistance and provides informal conference rights.
Bill textSec. 101Establishes a 3-year competitive grant program for temperature sensors in public housing and federally assisted rental properties; requires resident written consent before installation; mandates geographic, climate, and housing-type diversity in eligibility criteria; requires the Secretary to define 'temperature-related complaints and violations' within 180 days; requires an interim evaluation at 12 months and a final evaluation 36 months after conclusion.
Bill textSec. 106Reforms manufactured and modular housing across four sections: removes regulatory barriers to manufactured housing placement (Sec. 301), supports modular housing standardization and production (Sec. 302), modernizes FHA manufactured housing loan underwriting standards and loan limits (Sec. 303), and establishes affordability and accessibility standards for manufactured housing (Sec. 304).
Bill textSec. 301, Sec. 302, Sec. 303, Sec. 304Expands the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration program to additional public housing agencies, authorizing regulatory flexibility in rent calculations and work requirements for participating agencies.
Bill textSec. 505Contains nine sections (Secs. 901–909) overhauling community bank and credit union regulation: modifying deposit insurance classifications for Federal Reserve discount window access (Sec. 901), exempting qualifying smaller banks from enhanced prudential standards (Sec. 902), tailoring stress testing requirements by asset size (Sec. 903), updating credit union board compensation and governance rules (Sec. 904), mandating cost-benefit analysis for FSOC systemically important designations (Sec. 905), expanding SBA mentor-protégé programs to small community banks (Sec. 906), creating a Community Bank Access Initiative for underserved areas (Sec. 907), streamlining de novo bank charter applications (Sec. 908), and ordering a GAO study on rural bank failures and branch closures (Sec. 909).
Bill textSec. 901, Sec. 902, Sec. 903, Sec. 905, Sec. 908, Sec. 909Provides no new appropriations: Section 1202 explicitly states that the Act does not authorize additional funds and that all provisions must be implemented within existing agency budgets.
Bill textSec. 1202The law is a bipartisan response to a sustained national housing affordability and supply crisis; the Senate Banking Committee voted 24-0 in July 2025 to advance the measure, and the final enrolled bill was assembled from at least 26 previously introduced bipartisan legislative proposals that had each stalled independently.
LegisPlain analysisThe CBDC moratorium reflects several Congresses of legislative momentum to restrict Federal Reserve digital-currency development before the Fed could advance a retail CBDC infrastructure; embedding the moratorium in a high-consensus housing vehicle gave it a clear path to enactment that standalone CBDC legislation had not achieved.
LegisPlain analysisconfidence: mediumThe precise negotiating sequence that resulted in the CBDC provision's inclusion is not fully documented in available sources.First-time homebuyers and low-income borrowers in small-dollar markets benefit from the FHA pilot program for mortgages up to $100,000 (Sec. 105) and compensation incentives for small-dollar loan originators (Sec. 401) and modified fee structures for small-dollar mortgages (Sec. 402), targeting a segment lenders currently find unprofitable.
Bill textSec. 105, Sec. 401, Sec. 402Veterans experiencing homelessness or seeking homeownership benefit from targeted grants for disabled veterans (Sec. 602), standardized military-service identification in housing assistance applications (Sec. 601), and improved VA loan disclosure and counseling requirements (Sec. 603).
Bill textSec. 601, Sec. 602, Sec. 603Community banks and credit unions benefit from nine sections of regulatory relief in Title IX, including reduced stress-testing burdens, exemption from enhanced prudential standards, expanded Federal Reserve discount window access, streamlined de novo charter procedures, and expanded SBA mentor-protégé program eligibility.
Bill textSec. 901, Sec. 902, Sec. 903, Sec. 906, Sec. 908Rural and lower-income communities benefit from the USDA infill environmental review exemption (Sec. 103), Rural Housing Service modernization (Sec. 502), competitive grants rewarding measurable homelessness reductions (Sec. 503), expedited HUD disaster recovery funding (Sec. 504), and HOME Investment Partnerships reauthorization with increased grantee flexibility (Sec. 501).
Bill textSec. 103, Sec. 501, Sec. 502, Sec. 503, Sec. 504Large institutional investors controlling 350 or more single-family homes are barred from making additional single-family home purchases; violations are enforced through FHA and USDA loan restrictions on non-compliant transactions.
Bill textSec. 1001The Federal Reserve loses discretion to develop or pilot a retail CBDC until at least December 31, 2030, constraining its ability to respond to monetary technology developments during the moratorium period.
Bill textSec. 1101Federal agencies — HUD, USDA, VA, FHA, FHFA, OCC, and the Federal Reserve — absorb dozens of new rulemaking, reporting, program administration, and testimony mandates across 59 sections while receiving no additional appropriations under Section 1202.
LegisPlain analysisBuild-to-rent developers experienced investment uncertainty during the legislative process because of the evolving investor purchase restriction; those in exempted categories (build-to-rent, senior living) avoid the restriction but may face compliance demonstration costs depending on how agencies define the exemptions in regulation.
LegisPlain analysisconfidence: mediumLong-term effect on build-to-rent sector depends on regulatory implementation of the Sec. 1001 exemptions, which have not yet been promulgated.Title XI imposes a 4-year statutory moratorium on the Federal Reserve issuing, developing, or piloting a retail central bank digital currency. This is a significant monetary and financial-technology policy decision with no functional connection to housing supply — it was added during Senate-House negotiations and enrolled alongside zoning guidelines and FHA pilot programs. Because the prohibition sunsets on December 31, 2030, it must be actively re-legislated to persist; if Congress takes no action, the Federal Reserve's discretion is fully restored.
Sources for this finding:Title IX contains nine sections modifying bank and credit union regulation: easing deposit insurance classifications for discount window access (Sec. 901), exempting community banks from enhanced prudential standards (Sec. 902), tailoring stress-testing by asset size (Sec. 903), updating credit union board governance and compensation (Sec. 904), mandating FSOC designation transparency and cost-benefit analysis (Sec. 905), expanding the SBA mentor-protégé program to community financial institutions (Sec. 906), creating a Community Bank Access Initiative (Sec. 907), streamlining de novo bank charter applications (Sec. 908), and directing a GAO rural depository study (Sec. 909). None of these provisions directly increase housing supply; they represent a standalone financial regulatory agenda embedded in the law's housing framing.
Sources for this finding:Section 1001 ('Homes Are for People, Not Corporations') sets the enforcement trigger at entities controlling 350 or more single-family homes — a threshold that excludes the vast majority of institutional buyers and exempts build-to-rent developers and senior living operators entirely. These carve-outs are buried in the final substantive sections of a 59-section law. Depending on regulatory interpretation, the build-to-rent exemption in particular could narrow the practical effect of the restriction significantly, since build-to-rent is the primary growth vehicle for large single-family institutional landlords.
Sources for this finding:Section 505 authorizes HUD to expand the Moving to Work demonstration program to additional public housing agencies. MTW allows participating PHAs to waive standard HUD rules — including imposing time limits and work requirements on residents, and restructuring rent calculations. Expansion of this program is a significant social policy change for low-income public housing residents that received no headline attention in the bill's public framing as a housing supply measure.
Sources for this finding:No substantial legal issue identified.
Zoning framework guidelines (Sec. 107) are due within 3 years of enactment and are explicitly non-binding on states and localities; impact depends entirely on voluntary uptake. Single-stair building guidelines (Sec. 102) are due within 18 months.
Bill textSec. 107, Sec. 102The HUD Secretary must establish the FHA small-dollar mortgage pilot within 1 year (Sec. 105); define 'temperature-related complaints and violations' within 180 days for the sensor grant program (Sec. 106); and ensure CDBG grantees maintain searchable public land databases by October 1, 2026 (Sec. 104).
Bill textSec. 105, Sec. 106, Sec. 104The FHA Commissioner, FHFA Director, and relevant HUD officials must testify annually before Congress on housing market conditions and program performance (Sec. 701); FHA must submit quarterly reports to Congress on Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund solvency, claims experience, and risk metrics (Sec. 702); the GAO must produce studies on housing supply barriers, federal permitting timelines, and underserved rural and tribal communities (Sec. 804).
Bill textSec. 701, Sec. 702, Sec. 804Enforcement of the institutional investor purchase restriction (Sec. 1001) operates through FHA and USDA loan restrictions on non-compliant transactions rather than through direct civil or criminal penalties; effective enforcement therefore depends on lender due-diligence capacity within the FHA and USDA mortgage ecosystems, and the scope of the build-to-rent and senior living exemptions will require regulatory clarification.
LegisPlain analysisconfidence: mediumSpecific penalty provisions, rulemaking timelines, and agency guidance on the 350-property threshold have not yet been issued.Section 1202 explicitly bars any new appropriations: the Act states it does not authorize additional funds and that all provisions must be implemented within existing agency budgets.
Bill textSec. 1202Counseling costs for delinquent FHA borrowers are charged to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (Sec. 101); the small-dollar mortgage pilot includes grant authority covering down payments, closing costs, appraisals, and title insurance (Sec. 105) but sets no dollar cap on those grants; the temperature sensor program, the BUILD Housing grants (Sec. 205), the Innovation Fund (Sec. 208), and homelessness reduction grants (Sec. 503) all authorize competitive grant spending with no specified appropriation level.
Bill textSec. 101, Sec. 105, Sec. 205, Sec. 208, Sec. 503No CBO score was encountered during research. Actual fiscal impact depends on future appropriations acts funding the authorized grant programs.Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC): BPC supported the bill as a comprehensive bipartisan approach to expanding housing supply, noting it incorporates at least 26 sections of previously introduced bipartisan legislation and multiple provisions BPC and BPC Action had advocated for, including zoning reform, small-dollar mortgage incentives, and manufactured housing modernization.
Stakeholder claimBill Owens, Chairman, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB): Owens stated that the revised legislative language in the amended bill would improve builder sentiment, indicating NAHB's support for the law's approach to reducing regulatory barriers to residential construction.
Stakeholder claimNational Association of Counties (NACo): NACo expressed support for the Senate's passage of the bill, noting that it successfully combined the best elements of the existing House and Senate housing packages into a single comprehensive piece of legislation.
Stakeholder claimSen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Cruz voted against the final bill, stating that although it prevents the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC, the prohibition only pauses development until December 31, 2030 and does not bar the Fed from studying a CBDC, whereas his Anti-CBDC Act would permanently prohibit the Federal Reserve from ever issuing one; he viewed the temporary moratorium as insufficient.
Stakeholder claim28 House Republican Representatives (letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, 2026): A group of 28 House Republicans argued the CBDC prohibition in the bill was not strong enough: the ban would sunset in 2030 and failed to prevent the Fed from studying a CBDC; they demanded the provision either be strengthened to a permanent ban or removed before the bill returned to the House.
Stakeholder claimThe Senate Banking Committee advanced the measure unanimously (24-0) on July 29, 2025. The Senate passed an initial version 89-10 on March 12, 2026; the House passed its own version 390-9 on February 9, 2026. Following a conference process, the House passed the amended bill 396-13 on May 20, 2026, and the Senate gave final passage 85-5 on June 22, 2026.
Official recordPresident Trump allowed the bill to become law without his signature after 10 days, having characterized it as of minor importance compared to the SAVE America Act; it became Public Law 119-101 on July 11, 2026.
Official recordWhether HUD publishes the promised zoning framework guidelines within 3 years (by approximately July 2029) and whether any states or localities voluntarily adopt them; the guidelines are non-binding, making uptake the sole measure of impact.
LegisPlain analysisWhat happens to the CBDC moratorium at its December 31, 2030 sunset: whether Congress extends it, makes it permanent as Sen. Cruz and others advocate, or allows the Federal Reserve to proceed with CBDC development.
LegisPlain analysisWhether the institutional investor purchase restriction (Sec. 1001) faces legal challenges, and how agencies define the 350-home threshold and interpret the build-to-rent and senior living exemptions — the effective reach of the restriction turns heavily on how broadly those carve-outs are drawn in regulation.
LegisPlain analysisconfidence: mediumWhether agencies can meaningfully implement dozens of new mandates given Section 1202's no-new-funds constraint; programs with authorized but unappropriated grant authorities (BUILD Housing, Innovation Fund, temperature sensors, homelessness incentives) may remain dormant without dedicated appropriations.
LegisPlain analysisHow the expanded Moving to Work program (Sec. 505) is used by newly admitted public housing agencies, particularly whether agencies adopt work requirement flexibilities and how that affects low-income resident populations.
LegisPlain analysisconfidence: mediumThe scope of work requirements any given PHA may impose under MTW depends on agency discretion and HUD oversight, not on a specific statutory command.This decode is a snapshot. Bills change. Get emailed when this one is amended, voted on, or signed.
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