[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 43 (Monday, March 9, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S910-S912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                SAVE Act

  Madam President, finally, on the SAVE Act, yesterday, Donald Trump 
posted that he will not sign any legislation--no matter how important--
until Congress sends him the SAVE Act--and a beefed-up SAVE Act at 
that.

[[Page S911]]

  The SAVE Act is nothing more than a Jim Crow 2.0. It is a voter 
suppression bill. It takes away vote-by-mail. It makes it harder for 
people to register and would require States to hand over voting rolls 
to election deniers at the Department of Justice.
  The real damage here is not when you show up at the poll to vote and 
they ask for ID. It is the registration. They ask every State for their 
voter rolls, and a Musk-inspired DOGE voter ID, using AI, would be used 
to take tens of millions of people off the voting rolls, and they are 
not even told. They show up at the voting place on election day, and 
they say: Sorry, ma'am; sorry, sir, you are not on the rolls.
  Why? Because of this DOGE thing.
  It is outrageous. It is Jim Crow all over again.
  And now he says he doesn't even want vote-by-mail. Tell that to 
handicapped people.
  And to register--to register when they kick you off--you have to show 
up in person--only 5 percent do--and you have to show a passport or an 
original birth certificate. It is very hard for people to obtain. It is 
outrageous--outrageous.
  And now, Donald Trump says he will not sign any bill to lower costs, 
lower rent, lower groceries, until Congress passes this bill taking 
away tens of millions of citizens' right to vote.
  If Trump is saying he won't sign any bills until the SAVE Act is 
passed, there will be total gridlock in the Congress.
  On the other hand, if the SAVE Act does pass, democracy will be in 
very serious danger. Donald Trump is saying, in effect, unless Congress 
helps him undermine democracy, he is prepared to hold the rest of the 
country hostage.
  This is what he does. He is a thug. He is a bully. He can't ever 
argue on the merits. So he threatens.
  And no bills to bring down gas prices, no bills to make groceries 
more affordable, no bills to increase housing, not until the SAVE Act 
passes--that is what Donald Trump is saying. Democrats will make sure 
that never happens.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.


                    21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

  Mr. MORENO. Madam President, I rise today to address a crisis that 
strikes at the heart of what makes our Nation exceptional: the American 
dream.
  Like many who came before me, I came to America with my family to 
find my version of that American dream. For generations, the catalyst 
of that dream has been simple and powerful: the ability to graduate 
from high school, get a good job, get married, buy a home, raise a 
family in a safe community, send your kids to good schools, and retire 
with dignity.
  I think of my father-in-law, who joined U.S. Steel straight out of 
high school, bought a nice home in a suburb in Indiana. He raised a 
family of three kids, all on a single salary.
  The question facing this body is: Does the American dream still exist 
and are we still willing to fight for it?
  Ensuring this lives in America should unify all elected officials, 
regardless of political party. But for too many families--whether it is 
teachers in Ohio classrooms, nurses in Cincinnati hospitals, factory 
workers in Cleveland, or truckdrivers hauling goods across our State--
that dream is increasingly out of reach. Home prices have skyrocketed. 
Starter homes have vanished, and entire neighborhoods are being built 
not for homeowners but for distant corporations to rent out 
indefinitely.
  This is the explosive growth of a new industry called the single-
family build-to-rent industry. Massive Wall Street firms, private 
equity giants, and institutional investors are constructing whole 
communities of detached homes, only to lock them up as permanent 
rentals. These aren't small landlords helping fill a gap. These are 
corporate empires turning housing into just another asset class, just a 
profit machine for themselves, while denying the precious supply of 
single-family homes from hard-working Americans.
  In Ohio, this impact is real and painful. In Columbus, developments 
are rising as build-to-rent subdivisions. Families who could once 
afford modest three-bedroom homes now face monthly rents of $2,700 or 
more, payments that build corporate equity, not the equity for that 
homeowner.
  In Cincinnati, prime land that should host for-sale starter homes for 
young families is instead covered up in bulk for rental portfolios 
controlled by out-of-State investors.
  And in the working-class, east side neighborhoods in my hometown of 
Cleveland, OH, institutional and out-of-State investors have snapped up 
nearly half of all home purchases, turning once affordable homes into 
profit machines while jacking up rents and neglecting repairs and 
slamming the door on working families.
  Every home built for rent in Ohio is one less home available for 
purchase, fueling fiercer competition and driving up prices even higher 
for everyone else.
  The facts are just undeniable. The share of new family homes built 
specifically for rent has surged to levels far above historic norms, 10 
percent in some periods of all new housing starts. Those aren't 
scattered units; they are planned, large-scale communities designed for 
institutional ownership and endless renting.
  By crowding out for-sale development, they reduce inventory for 
first-time buyers. They push prices skyward and condemn millions to a 
lifetime of renting--facing higher rent, endless fees, perpetual 
instability, and no path to building generational wealth.
  The median age of a first-time home buyer in America is now 40 years 
old. That was 33 just 6 years ago--up 7 years in 6. Because of that, 
quite frankly, the ladder to ownership has been pulled up by corporate 
interests.
  Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American dream for a reason. 
Equity grows over time. Forced renting means your hard-earned dollars 
line someone else's pockets. I know this firsthand. Without the equity 
that I built in my first home, I would never have been able to buy my 
first business. That equity gave me the foundation to take a risk, 
create jobs, give back to my community, and provide for my family--the 
exact opportunity we are now denying to millions of Americans.
  And here is the bitter irony: The executives, the developers, the 
owners running these build-to-rent companies always own their own 
homes. They don't rent. They enjoy the stability, the pride, the wealth 
building that home ownership provides, while denying that same 
opportunity to working families that power our economy and built this 
country.
  This crisis isn't inevitable. President Donald J. Trump recognized it 
early and acted decisively. As he said at last month's State of the 
Union Address:

       Homes are for people, not [for] corporations.

  He made it clear: We must focus on building Main Street, not Wall 
Street. That is why he signed the Executive order stopping Wall Street 
from competing with Main Street home buyers, directing Federal Agencies 
to restrict support from large, institutional investors buying single-
family homes that families could otherwise purchase. He called on 
Congress to codify and strengthen these protections.
  Here in Washington, DC, highly paid political consultants--so-called 
experts--at think tanks have spilled much ink opining why the GOP now 
and Democrats before have lost support from young voters. Here is a 
thought: Maybe it is because young Americans know they can no longer 
afford to buy a home and start their own families like their parents 
before them did.
  Let's review some data. To start with, President Trump's plan is 
overwhelmingly popular. A recent poll found that 58 percent of the 
country support this plan, including 74 percent of Republicans and 58 
percent of Independents. But that is not all. Poll after poll have 
found that President Trump is addressing a top priority for younger 
Americans. Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z voters struggle to cover their 
monthly housing costs, 74 percent of younger Americans say the cost of 
housing has reached a crisis level, and 73 percent of Americans blame 
large investors for the lack of affordable housing. The Republican 
Party would be fools to bury our heads in the sand.
  So what does the other side say? Critics of this bill make two claims 
which, by the way, stand in direct contradiction. On the one hand, they 
claim that institutional investors don't buy enough homes to matter. 
This is a solution in need of a problem. On the

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other hand, they claim that institutional investors are so crucial to 
the housing market that this bill would singlehandedly dry up all kinds 
of home ownership supply.
  So you can't have it both ways: Either you don't matter, or you do 
matter.
  Of course, the answer is, you do matter. And that is why you saw that 
7-year drop in home ownership rates among young people over the period 
that this industry has boomed.
  So I say to my Republican colleagues and to my Democrat colleagues: 
This moment is a test. President Trump proved that by breaking with 
decades of stale, establishment-driven orthodoxy, he could build an 
unbeatable coalition--a coalition made up of voters who have, for 
decades, abandoned the GOP and who the Democrats have now completely 
left behind, from Black men to younger voters, to Hispanics.
  So the question now is this, Will congressional Republicans hear the 
American people and do what it takes to sustain that coalition? Will we 
deliver on the promises we made--President Trump's--on the campaign 
trail or will we continue to let the DC establishment swamp set our 
agenda?
  With the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan effort led by 
my good, dear friend Senator Tim Scott that includes critical 
provisions to limit large institutional investors from dominating the 
single-family market, we have a chance to deliver on what we promised 
these voters.
  By building on President Trump's Executive actions--curbing their 
access to Federal financing and preventing them from crowding out 
individual buyers--we are putting families first; we are increasing 
paths to ownership; and ensuring more new homes are built for sale, not 
endless corporate rental portfolios.
  It is time to get this done. New communities should be places where 
Ohio families and American families everywhere can own, not just rent 
from faceless funds.
  The American dream isn't dead. It is just under siege. Thanks to 
President Trump's leadership--his clear vision that homes are for 
people, his fight to put Main Street first--we have a real chance to 
reclaim it.
  So I urge all of my Republican colleagues, let's make home ownership 
attainable again for the hard-working men and women who built this 
country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. MORENO. I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum 
call in relation to substitute amendment No. 4308 to Calendar No. 343, 
H.R. 6644.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Ohio.