Housing Assistance Council (HAC) CEO David Lipsetz Applauds Markup of Bipartisan Senate Housing Legislation

The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee announced a markup of a broad, bipartisan housing bill on July 29. The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 includes legislation from members across the committee, including several rural priorities.

“HAC applauds Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Warren for their remarkable work on the ROAD to Housing Act,” said David Lipsetz, President and CEO of HAC. “Housing is the largest monthly expense for American families, and the housing affordability crisis is as urgent in small town and rural America as in the nation’s cities and suburbs. That’s why it’s so important that the Committee is moving legislation forward on a comprehensive and bipartisan basis.”

The ROAD to Housing Act includes several bills that HAC has been supportive of, most significantly the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, led by Senators Smith (D-MN) and Rounds (R-SD). This bill would provide the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Housing Service (RHS) with new tools to address the preservation of its critical multifamily portfolio; authorize successful pilot programs; modernize the single-family housing programs; and improve USDA’s internal infrastructure, technology, and reporting.

“We are especially pleased that the bill centers the housing needs of rural communities and the essential role in addressing them played by the USDA’s rural housing programs,” noted Lipsetz. “In addition to the RHS Reform Act, the bill includes important provisions to improve program coordination and align regulatory action across USDA, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Department of Veterans Affairs housing programs.”

Over the last several years, members of the Banking Committee have been crafting commonsense, bipartisan legislation to improve our federal affordable housing response, and many of these bills have been wrapped into the ROAD to Housing Act for this markup. HAC is glad to see the committee taking this action.

Bill text and a section-by-section summary can be seen here.