During its two-day markup beginning December 16, 2025, the House Committee on Financial Services advanced legislation on affordable housing and financial policy.

Specifically, 12 bills moved to the full House during the markup—most notably HR. 6644, the Housing in the 21st Century Act, a bipartisan package that updates housing programs, reduces regulation within housing development, and attempts to improve housing affordability.

The markup comes after the release of the most recent version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), negotiated between House and Senate leaders; the NDAA did not include many of the housing provisions from the Senate’s bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act that passed the Senate on October 9, which LeadingAge had advocated for. Instead, the House released its own bipartisan housing legislation, and the two chambers will need to reach agreement on joint legislation in the new year.

In the opening remarks of the December 16 markup, Chairman French Hill (R-AR) stated, “Our Committee has spent countless hours crafting a bill to create real, tangible solutions that will streamline housing development and affordability by updating outdated programs, removing unnecessary federal requirements, and increasing local control.”

Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) commends the bipartisanship of the legislation but emphasized that the bill is still evolving, stating, “This bill should be seen as a great starting point, not a finish line and I hope that the spirit of bipartisanship that brought us here today will extend to securing the additional investments our country needs to deliver the bold, comprehensive solutions this moment demands.”

The bill includes a provision requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study barriers to scaling affordable housing supply through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly and Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities. These findings are critical to address the rising rates of homelessness among the aging population, a topic heavily addressed during the markup and a top priority for LeadingAge. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) spoke on her bill, the Eviction Helpline Act, stating, “older Americans are part of the growing ‘gray wave’, facing evictions because they simply cannot find an affordable place to live.”

The Housing in the 21st Century Act expands the Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) program, the largest federal block-grant to state and local governments, currently designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low and extremely low-income households. The bill extends HOME eligibility to support housing for moderate-income households, which could divert scarce resources away from those with the greatest needs and potentially decrease affordability for the lowest-income older adults. The markup also aimed to spur more efficient use of HOME program resources; Rep. Joyce Beatty’s (D-OH) adopted amendment improves the program’s flexibility for nonprofits that produce affordable housing and alleviate compliance for small properties.

While the bill would provide some housing development relief from new domestic procurement requirements, the bill only exempts the HOME program from Build America, Buy America (BABA), legislation which establishes the Buy America Preference (BAP) for federally-funded infrastructure projects, including HUD-assisted properties. During the mark-up, Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT) addressed the domestic procurement issue: “BABA has made increasing the supply of affordable housing more expensive with longer lead times.” In 2022, LeadingAge wrote a letter providing feedback to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), endorsing the goals of promoting U.S.-made materials but called for exemptions on HUD-assisted housing programs. Applying BAP to Section 202 capital advances and other critical senior housing programs cause delays in HUD-funded developments and slow recapitalization efforts—a reason LeadingAge will continue to push for BABA exemptions across all HUD programs.

In addition to BABA, the bill exempts the HOME program from certain infill and building rehabilitation requirements, streamlining the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under NEPA, federal agencies review the impact of proposed infrastructure projects before they are built. LeadingAge supports reasonable environmental reviews and protections, and we also support action to improve the environmental review process in order to build housing supply more quickly.

The package also modernizes building codes, including an added amendment from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) increasing the allowable height for ‘point-access block buildings’— residential structures with a single stairway—from five to six stories, enabling more housing units without compromising safety. While some argue about the impact of fire safety on single stairway buildings, most agree that increasing the height limit is a practical step to boosting housing supply.

The legislative package advanced by the committee also includes HR. 1078, the Respect State Housing Laws Act, which removes a requirement on housing providers to provide a 30-day notice to vacate, a pandemic-era tenant protection measure. The bill was advanced along party lines, drawing criticism from Rep. Waters, who noted that, according to HUD, a 30-day eviction notification for non-payment of rent helps reduce evictions by between 1,600 and 4,900 annually. LeadingAge emphasized in its recent comments to HUD that eviction protections are critical for older adults with low incomes who are facing housing instability and do not place undue burden on providers.

Overall, the Housing Financial Services Committee mark-up was a bipartisan show of Congress’s eagerness to address the housing crisis. Compared to the House legislative package, the Senate’s bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act focuses on slightly different priorities and goes further to authorize new funding for housing. For example, the Senate legislation creates new housing program investments, advances broader HOME reforms, promotes rural housing preservation, addresses issues with HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), and more.

LeadingAge will stay informed on the deliberation between the House and Senate and will continue to advocate for policies that advance affordable housing for older adults.