Bipartisan housing package remains in limbo
On June 29, after the House and Senate gave overwhelming final approval following months of back-and-forth negotiations, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) transmitted the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to President Trump for his official consideration. The week before, the president had unexpectedly announced his intention to delay signing the bill until Congress approved a voting restrictions bill (the SAVE America Act) that is strongly opposed by all Democrats and previously failed to pass the Senate. Beginning with the transmission date, the president has 10 days to sign or veto the housing bill (excluding Sundays), and if no action is taken, it will automatically become law without his signature July 11. If he were to veto the bill, Congress could override the veto with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate.
Major tenets of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act include the requirement of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue best practices regarding zoning and design for cities and states; expansion of affordable housing programs currently available to Americans; easing of regulations for development and construction; language to ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes; and provisions to relax some regulations on community banks. There were nearly 60 individual provisions making up the 381-page bill.
View a full title-by-title summary from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
NRCA urges inclusion of housing bill in end-of-year tax package
On July 7, NRCA and 49 partners in the Neighborhood Homes Coalition sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) urging them to include H.R. 2854, the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, in any legislative package focused on affordability.
The legislation, which was endorsed by NRCA earlier this year and was one of the advocacy issues featured during Roofing Day in D.C. 2026, would establish federal tax credits that would help close the gap between the cost of constructing or rehabilitating a home and its market value. These credits would be allocated by formula to state housing finance agencies and then distributed through a competitive process to project sponsors, such as developers, local governments or financial institutions. Project sponsors would have five years to complete homes, which must be sold at affordable prices, generally capped at four times the area’s median family income.
The letter reminded Johnson and Smith that the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act is the most widely supported affordable homeownership supply bill in Congress: “Enacting NHIA would deliver meaningful housing affordability relief for working families while advancing President Trump’s goal of increasing housing supply and ensuring more homes are available for individuals and families—not large institutional investors.”
NRCA and its partnering organizations stand ready to work with Congress to increase the housing supply for Americans, which ultimately will help address the out-of-control costs of home ownership in the U.S.
Trump administration releases Unified Regulatory Agenda
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released its 2026 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which outlines planned regulatory actions of federal agencies during the next year and beyond and provides important public notice and transparency about proposed regulatory initiatives. Of note, the Unified Agenda indicates the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is planning to initiate a supplemental rulemaking regarding the agency’s proposed rule, Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Indoor and Outdoor Settings. This filing opens the possibility for OSHA to develop a revised version of the proposed rule issued by the Biden administration in August 2024, which the Trump administration is reevaluating. However, sources indicate any final decision related to OSHA moving forward with a revised heat standard proposal will take additional time as agency officials continue their review of the Biden proposal.
NRCA outlined member concerns with the Biden proposed rule at agency hearings in June 2025, and NRCA recently reiterated these concerns with David Keeling, assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health, at a recent meeting in Washington, D.C. NRCA will continue to be actively engaged with agency officials to address roofing industry concerns with any revised heat rule as OSHA moves forward on a potential supplemental rulemaking.
U.S. declines extension of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement
The Trump administration declined to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which governs more than $2 trillion in trade among the three nations annually, by the July 1 deadline for renewal. The USMCA was negotiated in 2020 during President Trump’s first term and replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement that had originally been negotiated in the 1990s. The decision triggers a process of negotiations that could result in a revised agreement at a future date or a succession of annual reviews of various tariff regimes among the three countries. The existing agreement does remain in place for the next 10 years while annual reviews and other potential negotiations continue. Negotiations between the U.S. and Mexico are scheduled for the week of July 20, but nothing currently is scheduled between the U.S. and Canada.
NRCA has supported the USMCA given the significant amount of trade in roofing-related products with trading partners in Canada and Mexico. Most recently, NRCA joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other allied groups in sending a coalition letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in support of the agreement.
Heading to NRCA’s Midyear Committee Meetings next week in Chicago?
Reserve your spot for this fun networking event! Join your roofing friends and colleagues for cocktails and conversation while supporting ROOFPAC, the roofing industry’s voice in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 15, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on the Gallery Terrace at the Gwen Hotel in Chicago ($175 per person/$275 per couple). Members of NRCA’s Political Insiders Council and Capitol Hill Club, along with their guests, receive complimentary admission. Special thanks to our sponsor, Johns Manville, for making this event possible.
To register, please visit www.nrca.net/roofpac-midyear-event. For any questions or to secure the couples’ rate, contact Teri Dorn at (202) 510-0920 or tdorn@nrca.net.
