{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cleaver-senators-warren-and-warnock-lead-reintroduction", "Congressman Cleaver, Senators Warren and Warnock Lead Reintroduction of Landmark Bill to Tackle U.S. Housing Crisis", "2024-07-29", "2024", "2024-07", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Emanuel Cleaver", "C001061", "cleaver.house.gov", "cleaver", "https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "(Washington, D.C.) \u2013 This week, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO), Ranking Member of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the House Committee on Financial Services, and U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, reintroduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, landmark legislation to tackle the housing crisis, bring down costs for renters and buyers, and help working families everywhere find a decent place to live at a decent price.\n\nAccording to an independent analysis by the non-partisan Moody\u2019s Analytics, the bill would build or rehabilitate nearly 3 million housing units over the next decade and bring down rents for lower-income and middle-class families by 10%, saving the average family $140 per month. To fully offset the cost of this historic effort, the bill returns the estate tax thresholds to their levels at the end of the George W. Bush administration and institutes more progressive rates above those thresholds.\n\n\"The failure to address our national housing shortage has driven up costs that make homeownership difficult, increased rent burdens in communities across the country, and pushed far too many Americans into homelessness,\u201d said Congressman Cleaver. \u201cNot only does this preclude working class Americans from obtaining safe, stable, and secure housing, but it prevents millions of our fellow citizens, particularly those in minority communities, from climbing the economic ladder and building generational wealth. I\u2019m proud to introduce the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act with Senators Warren and Warnock, which will spur the construction and rehabilitation of three million units nationwide, help to lower housing costs, and expand economic opportunity to families throughout the United States.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe only way to dig our country out of this housing crisis is to build more housing so everyone has a place to call home,\u201d said Senator Warren. \u201cMy bill will make bold investments in our country\u2019s housing and encourage local innovation to lower housing costs even more \u2014 and it\u2019s all paid for by getting America\u2019s wealthiest families to chip in.\u201d\n\n\u201cHousing means dignity, safety, and security, and as a Senator who grew up in public housing, I know that strengthening housing availability and affordability is critical to helping folks establish a solid foundation to build a healthy future,\u201d said Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. \u201cThat is why I am proud to join Senator Warren and my colleagues in fighting for this transformational legislation that will unleash construction of millions of new homes and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process.\n\n\"The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act has the power to transform lives and communities. By significantly expanding investments in proven solutions, like the national Housing Trust Fund and Public Housing, this legislation provides resources at the scale necessary to help those most harmed by America\u2019s housing crisis,\u201d said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. \u201cI applaud Senator Warren, Senator Warnock, and Representative Cleaver for their leadership in advancing bold solutions to address an underlying cause of America\u2019s housing crisis: the severe shortage of rental homes affordable to our nation\u2019s lowest-income and most marginalized households.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnybody who cares about repairing what\u2019s broken in American society understands that getting housing costs back in line with what working-class people can really afford is a mandatory step in that process,\u201d said Jesse Van Tol, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). \u201cThis important legislation may have an acronym that sounds like someone politely asking for your attention, but the tens of millions of families that can hardly make ends meet because of the issues AHEM addresses are ready to scream. I applaud Senator Warren and Representative Cleaver for continuing to push for a sensible and sustainable set of policies that would allow all Americans to thrive.\u201d\n\n\"Our devastating housing affordability crisis has reached a point where something has to give: we can continue to prioritize profits for Wall Street and private equity firms, or we invest in affordable housing and address historical harms that have excluded too many from homeownership,\" said Caroline Nagy, Senior Policy Counsel for Housing, Corporate Power, and Climate Justice at Americans for Financial Reform. \"We desperately need to invest in building more affordable housing and maintaining our public housing, and for these reasons we applaud the introduction of the American Housing Economic Mobility Act.\"\n\n\u201cWe proudly support the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act introduced by Senator Warren and Congressman Cleaver,\u201d said Sharon Cornelissen, Director of Housing at the Consumer Federation of America. \u201cIn the wake of the pandemic and amidst ever-surging housing prices and limited supply, millions of consumers across the country are struggling to afford to rent or buy a home. This bill would turbocharge affordable housing construction, incentivize communities to remove exclusionary and unfair zoning restrictions, and ensure that first-time, first-generation homebuyers including veterans get their chance at building wealth through homeownership too.\u201d\n\nThe American Housing and Economic Mobility Act would:\n\nLeverage federal funding to build nearly 3 million new housing units \u2013 bringing down rents for lower-income and middle-class families by 10% according to an independent analysis from Moody\u2019s Analytics.\n\nProvide Assistance to people hurt by federal housing policy failures, including through:\n\nDown payment assistance to first-time, first-generation homebuyers.\n\nVA-guaranteed home loan eligibility for descendants of certain veterans.\n\nA grant program for communities with an appraisal gap.\n\nCreate incentives for local governments to eliminate unnecessary land use restrictions that drive up costs.\n\nLimit the role of private equity in the housing market.\n\nHold financial institutions accountable for providing access to credit for all Americans.\n\nPromote mobility by strengthening anti-discrimination laws and improving the housing voucher program.\n\nIncrease the amount of accessible housing.\n\nHouse cosponsors include Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Cori Bush (D-MO), Becca Balint (D-VT), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Chuy Garc\u00eda (D-IL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Gabe Amo (D-RI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Al Green (D-TX), and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA). Senate cosponsors include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Peter Welch (D-VT).\n\nOver 40 non-profit organizations, ranging from unions to housing advocates, have endorsed the bill, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). A coalition of civil rights groups, the National Rural Housing Coalition, and the Cooperative Credit Union Association submitted letters of support. Additionally, in 2019, the Native American Indian Housing Council adopted a resolution endorsing the bill, which remains effective today.\n\nThe full list of endorsing organizations includes:\n\nUnions: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of Teachers (AFT).\n\nHousing Organizations: National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Housing Law Project, National Rural Housing Coalition, National Community Stabilization Trust, Native American Indian Housing Council, National Housing Resource Center, National Neighborworks Association, Center for NYC Neighborhoods, National Women\u2019s Shelter Network, National Coalition for the Homeless.\n\nCivil Rights Organizations: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Urban League, National Women\u2019s Law Center, Coalition on Human Needs, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Poverty and Race Research Action Council, Massachusetts Action for Justice, Mountain State Justice, Coalition for Social Work and Health, National Fair Housing Alliance, African Communities Together.\n\nConsumer Protection Organizations: Consumer Federation of America, Center for Responsible Lending, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), Consumer Action.\n\nEconomic Justice Organizations: Americans for Financial Reform, Rise Economy (formerly California Reinvestment Coalition), National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Patriotic Millionaires, United for a Fair Economy, Responsible Wealth, Community Opportunity Alliance (formerly NACEDA), Progressive Democrats of America, Groundwork Collaborative, Voices for Progress, Liberation in a Generation, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB), Accountable.US, Empire State Justice.\n\nCredit Unions: Cooperative Credit Union Association.\n\nOfficial text of the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act is available here.\n\nA summary of the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:24:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cleaver-senators-warren-and-warnock-lead-reintroduction"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7366721294820309, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}