Senate Bill Calls for National Housing Emergency

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) introduced a bill that calls for a national emergency on housing, a declaration that would trigger federal resources and allow the government to use the Defense Production Act to boost production of materials used for housing.

As Ryan Kushner explains in Smart Cities Dive, “The bill seeks to spur the construction of 4 million additional housing units in the U.S. It also asks the federal government to prohibit state and local governments from imposing regulations that place ‘a substantial burden’ on housing production during the ‘period of the emergency’ that lasts until 2031 or until the 4 million goal is met.”

The act would compel regulatory changes at the state and local level and would introduce a “pro-growth” condition for federal block grant funding.