[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 10, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S943-S946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
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HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT--Resumed
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 6644, which the clerk will
report.
The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 6644) to increase the supply of housing in
America, and for other purposes.
Pending:
Scott (SC)/Warren amendment No. 4308, in the nature of a
substitute.
Thune (for Scott (SC)/Warren) amendment No. 4307 (to
amendment No. 4308), to require the Comptroller General of
the United States to submit to Congress studies on workforce
housing, housing for persons who are elderly or disabled,
proximity of housing to Superfund sites, and residential
heirs property.
Thune amendment No. 4310 (to amendment No. 4307), to change
the enactment date.
Thune amendment No. 4311 (to the text proposed to be
stricken by amendment No. 4308), to change the enactment
date.
Thune amendment No. 4312 (to amendment No. 4311), of a
perfecting nature.
Thune motion to commit the bill to the Committee on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, with instructions,
amendment No. 4313, to change the enactment date.
Thune amendment No. 4314 (to the instructions of the motion
to commit), of a perfecting nature.
Thune amendment No. 4315 (to amendment No. 4314), of a
perfecting nature.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic leader is
recognized.
Iran
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Donald Trump's war with Iran grows more
confusing and more contradictory by the day.
Yesterday, Trump suggested without any explanation that:
I think the war is very complete, pretty much.
But, this morning, Pete Hegseth stood before the camera and announced
that today will be the most intense day of strikes yet. He said that
today's activity will involve the ``most fighters, the most bombers,
the most strikes.''
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Well, which is it? Is the war ending, or are we on the brink of the
worst fighting yet? How is it possible that Trump and his cronies can't
make it 12 hours without contradicting themselves about this war?
It is incredible. I have never seen anything like it--a war--
serious--putting our soldiers in harm's way, costing billions, which
should be spent on reducing our costs here overseas, and they don't
even have a rationale. They keep contradicting each other and
contradicting themselves.
Yesterday, President Trump was also asked whether the war is ``very
complete,'' as he said, or is it just at the beginning, as Hegseth
says. Well, do you care to guess the President's answer?
He said:
I think you could say [it is] both.
He said it is both.
He said:
It is the beginning of building a new country.
Those words, by the way, sound a lot like regime change to me, which
Trump and others have denied is their goal.
Donald Trump is clueless. He has no earthly clue what he is talking
about. If something pops into his head, he says it. The next day, if
something pops into his head that is contradictory, he says it even
though the two things are totally at odds with each other. He doesn't
care about the truth. He doesn't care about the soldiers he has put in
harm's way. He doesn't care about the billions of dollars we are
spending here while people are demanding that he spend them on lowering
costs.
He can't articulate a plan for a vision because he has no plan or
vision; and the statistics show that this is the least popular war, at
the beginning of it, of any war this country has engaged in. Donald
Trump doesn't even seem to know whether or not the country is at war.
It is as if he wakes up in the morning and decides right then and there
what the plan is going to be.
Donald Trump is risking the lives of our troops, the safety of the
American people, and the stability of the world economy based on whims,
based on feelings, based on contradictions. It is dangerous. It is
incompetent. It is sort of like a second grader running this war.
Donald Trump is also a liar. He claims that Iranian Tomahawk missiles
were responsible for the bombing of an all-girls' school that killed
170 people, including many children.
Iran doesn't have Tomahawk missiles, Donald Trump. The claim is
beyond asinine.
Again, he says whatever pops into his head no matter what the truth
is, and we all know he lies, but on something as horrible as this, it
is appalling. No other leader in the administration--not even Pete
Hegseth, who does whatever Trump wants--is claiming Iranian missiles
did this. Trump is lying through his teeth.
So, this morning, I will be demanding a full, independent, and
transparent investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at this
school and why so many innocent civilians were tragically killed. There
needs to be accountability.
Meanwhile, Trump's addiction to chaos is coming back to haunt the
United States. The most formidable weapon Iran has right now is the
Strait of Hormuz which, today, is effectively shut down; and now,
thanks to Donald Trump's lack of foresight, Iran has a new, even more
radical, even more hostile extreme leader, who will not be inclined to
give up leverage over the strait. That is the one weapon that Iran has
where it can be, unfortunately, successful.
The result?
Oil and gas prices are soaring across the world, including here in
America. A barrel of Brent crude shot over $100 a barrel yesterday.
That got Trump to say his contradictory things to try to bring the
price down. It came down a little but not much. The average price of 1
gallon in the United States is $3.54. That is a 17-percent increase
since the start of the war.
Yet Donald Trump says: If it rises, it rises. He says: It doesn't
really affect us.
What a clueless thing to say. Has Donald Trump ever filled his own
tank in his life? Has he any clue of what people go through when the
price of gas goes up? Maybe billionaires like him don't have to worry,
but for the rest of us, his war with Iran means more inflation in
America--and not just in gasoline. Airline tickets will go up because
of the price of fuel for the airlines. Food prices will go up because
of the price of fertilizer. It will cut across the board, as we have
seen before, when oil prices go up. Donald Trump is causing chaos in
our economy.
Finally, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio owe the American
people some answers. The administration needs to come before Congress
and testify in public hearings, under oath, as to why our troops are
fighting and dying in the Middle East.
This morning, I am joining with a group of my colleagues to demand
just that, that they come before Congress and testify in public so they
can see what the administration is up to and not up to, and I believe
they will see the mass confusion as they engage in this war.
The story from the administration changes by the hour, so what we
need are public hearings where the administration testifies under oath.
When it comes to sending our servicemembers into harm's way, the
American people need to understand why, but right now, they don't even
have a ``why.'' That needs to change. We need testimony. We are
demanding it today. We need accountability.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Recognition of the Majority Leader
The majority leader is recognized.
H.R. 6644
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, home ownership--that quintessential part of
the American dream--has become increasingly unattainable for a lot of
Americans and for younger Americans in particular.
The New York Times reports that home prices have surged roughly 50
percent since the pandemic, and mortgage rates have also risen. A
December 2025 article from the New York Post notes:
A new Bankrate analysis has found that more than 75% of
listings nationwide are out of financial reach for a median-
income family, despite annual earnings hovering just under
$80,000.
To swing a median-priced home in 2025, buyers now need to
earn roughly $113,000 a year, which is a gap that's turning
the starter-home dream into a math problem few can solve.
Let me just repeat that.
. . . a gap that's turning the starter-home dream into a
math problem few can solve.
With these kinds of numbers, it is no surprise that the typical age
of first-time home buyers has reached an alltime high of age 40 or that
in a recent New York Times poll 25 percent of registered voters listed
housing as their biggest financial worry--the only category to get more
than 20 percent.
That number was even worse for young people, with more than 50
percent of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 29 putting
housing at the top of their financial worry list.
Well, this week, we are taking action. On the floor this week is the
21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a package of bills targeted at making
housing more affordable and accessible for hard-working Americans. This
bill isn't some new government program that will drive up costs to
taxpayers while doing little or nothing to solve housing problems for
everyday Americans. No. This bill offers real solutions that will
unlock new home construction, drive down prices, and increase the
supply of affordable homes.
One problem driving up the cost of housing is regulation. Regulations
account for roughly 25 percent of the cost of constructing a new
single-family dwelling, and, of course, these costs are passed on to
the consumer in the form of higher selling prices for new homes. That
is why the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act takes aim at unnecessary
regulation by removing, streamlining, or updating regulations that act
as a drag on the supply of affordable housing.
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Along with removing regulatory barriers, the 21st Century ROAD to
Housing Act focuses on unleashing private sector investment.
And this entire bill has been put together with an emphasis on
allowing States and local communities to pursue the housing solutions
that work for them.
Look at the great diversity of circumstances across rural, suburban,
and urban communities, and it should be clear to everyone that one-
size-fits-all mandates from Washington are not the solution. Instead,
we need to empower States and localities to create the solutions that
fit their particular communities.
There is a lot more in this bill, from support for veterans and rural
communities to increased oversight and accountability for Federal
housing programs. It is the product of good ideas from both parties and
from both Houses of Congress. And it is no surprise that it is
supported by everyone from the National League of Cities to the
National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders and the National
Association of REALTORS.
The inflation crisis that defined the Biden administration is still
weighing down a lot of American families. And since taking office last
January, Republicans have been focused on making life easier for the
American people. We prevented a massive tax hike and put more money in
American's pockets with the working families tax cuts, took aim this
January at high prices at the pharmacy counter, and now we are
continuing our work on affordability with the 21st Century ROAD to
Housing Act to open the door for affordable homes for hard-working
Americans around the country. And we are going to continue to do
everything we can to ease the burdens facing Americans and to make life
better for the American people.
Department of Homeland Security
Mr. President, in just a moment, I am going to move to proceed to a
piece of legislation that we have voted on a number of times already,
and that is a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security.
This is now the 25th day of the shutdown of the Department of
Homeland Security. It follows the Democrat shutdown last fall that went
for 43 days of virtually the entire government. This applies to the
Department of Homeland Security.
And so here we are, 25 days into another government shutdown
instigated by Democrats because they want, I guess, changes made to the
bill--although it is very hard to know what that is because, at this
point, they refuse even to meet to talk about this.
Now, remember how this all began. The Department of Homeland Security
appropriations bill was negotiated by both the House and the Senate,
Republicans and Democrats, and it passed out of the House of
Representatives. So it comes over here to the Senate, a bill negotiated
by Democrats in the Senate along with our Republican colleagues on our
side and our colleagues in the House of Representatives and the White
House. So we had an agreed-upon Department of Homeland Security
appropriations bill.
And then what happened? Well, the Democrats decided they didn't like
that bill anymore and decided to walk away from it, wanted to
renegotiate it, after all that negotiation, which included, I might
add, reforms that they had requested specifically as they apply to ICE,
including body cameras--$20 million in there for body cameras--
deescalation training, additional oversight of ICE activities. A whole
range of things were included in the base bill. It is the bill that we
will be voting on later this week, again, unless there is some--unless
they decide to actually come to the table and negotiate.
So it had all that input from Republicans, Democrats. Reforms
requested by Democrats, passed out of the House, comes over here to be
picked up and passed by the Senate. Senate Democrats say: Whoops,
sorry. We are not for this anymore. We want to renegotiate.
So in that context, the White House and Senate Republicans have made
good-faith efforts to submit proposals, additional ideas that the
Democrats have put on their long wish list--which was about 15 items,
some of which were not doable.
I mean, there are certain things on there--obviously, anytime you are
trying to negotiate a deal, you are not going to get everything you
want, right? Well, the Democrats had a long list of things, demands
that they had wanted.
Republicans agreed to sit down. The White House, to their credit, has
submitted now multiple efforts. The most recent one has not been
responded to by the Senate Democrats.
But what makes this even more stark is you have now Agencies of
government with employees who aren't going to get paid that perform
important national security functions, cyber security. You think that
is not a problem in a dangerous world? Border Patrol, Customs and
Border Protection--Border Patrol--they are not getting paid. TSA--
people are starting to travel. The airport, the lines are getting
longer and longer and longer. Coast Guard, FEMA--FEMA, the Agency that
responds to disasters around this country and has virtually run out of
money--is also part of the bill that the Democrats are holding up.
Now, all that is bad enough and, frankly, shameful, if you think
about it, given what is at stake for this country and for our national
security, for our border security, for security in our communities, for
disaster assistance, for our cyber security. Those are all things that
aren't being funded because of the Democrat shutdown, which is bad in
and of itself.
But what makes it even worse is they are now saying they don't even
want to sit down and talk. Overtures were made yesterday to the ranking
Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Countless overtures
have been made to the Democrat leadership, and they have basically
said: Sorry, we don't want to talk.
So here we are, in the 25th day now of the government shutdown
instigated by Democrats, after they had agreed to the very bill that
they are now opposing, and are now opposing even sitting down and
talking and negotiating on the things they say they want. Explain that
one.
This is borderline obnoxious. This is indefensible; it is
unjustifiable; and there are American people who are going to hurt as a
result of this and those already who work at these Agencies--some
120,000 at 1 Agency alone--that aren't going to get paid, who perform
critical security missions for this country to keep the American people
safe.
I don't get it. I really don't. You want reforms? Our side, the White
House have been willing to sit down, have given a number of the
suggestions the Democrats had, in addition to the things that were in
the original bill that they had negotiated and agreed to, which
included reforms, like I said: $20 million for body cameras,
deescalation training, oversight of ICE. There have been a number of
additional things the White House has been willing to work with the
Democrats on.
Tom Homan, who has been sort of in the lead in terms of what is going
on out there as far as the enforcement issue is concerned, has offered
up himself and been willing to talk about some of these requests that
Democrats have, but, frankly, it is hard to get to a solution when you
have one party that refuses to even sit down and talk. This is kind of
a new low, really.
There are certain things the American people, I think, expect of
their elected officials, one of which is to continue the basic
functioning of the government: funding government Agencies, especially
government Agencies that have critical national security missions.
What makes it even worse is, we have tried now on countless occasions
to buy additional time to allow for negotiations to continue and to
fund those Agencies, at least temporarily, until there is a permanent
solution in place. We have now twice come down here on the floor and
asked for a continuing resolution--a continuing resolution, meaning a
funding mechanism that will allow these Agencies to function and these
employees to get paid until such time as there actually is an
agreement, and they have objected to that both times.
So we are going to try again. I am going to move to reconsider, and
we will have another opportunity to vote on that proposal--the original
proposal negotiated by House and Senate Democrats and Republicans,
unless between now and the time we vote on this, they
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decide to engage in conversations and discussions and we do arrive at
some agreement that will enable us to actually fund the government and
perhaps include some of the things that the Democrats want included,
but you can't do that if you are not at the table. You can't do that if
it is a one-sided negotiation, and it is pretty clear, at this point,
that is what we are talking about here.
There is no question about--you know, sometimes there is some ``Who
is shutting down the government?'' My impression, in this case at
least, is that the Democrats view this as a political issue and some
sort of a political winner for them; otherwise, I can't explain why--
why they won't even sit down at the table and negotiate. It is not
about politics. These are people's lives we are talking about. These
are jobs. These are livelihoods. These are families.
And the mission, which is protecting the American people, keeping
this country safe and secure--there is no higher one. You want to shut
down the Department of Homeland Security, the Department that is tasked
with defending the homeland? Those people aren't getting paid; those
programs aren't getting funded; and those functions aren't being
performed by the people that we ask to do that job.
____________________