{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/hyde-smith-celebrates-new-affordable-housing-law", "HYDE-SMITH CELEBRATES NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING LAW", "2026-07-13", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Cindy Hyde-Smith", "H001079", "www.hydesmith.senate.gov", "hydesmith", "https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/newsroom", "scraper", "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Becomes Law, Includes Hyde-Smith Priorities\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee, today heralded the enactment of the first comprehensive housing affordability measure approved by Congress in decades.\n\nThe 21st Century ROAD (Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream) to Housing Act (HR.6644) includes priority reforms Hyde-Smith has supported to address housing needs in rural America. Hyde-Smith voted with the Senate on June 18 to give the bill its final approval. The bill became law at midnight Friday without President Trump\u2019s signature.\n\n\u201cThe 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act represents a bipartisan recognition that government should be a helping hand, not a hindrance, as it too often has been in addressing affordable housing needs in Mississippi and across this great nation. This new law takes meaningful steps to increase housing supply by cutting unnecessary regulations, attacking waste, fraud, and abuse in federal housing programs, and providing incentives to invest in affordable housing,\u201d Hyde-Smith said.\n\n\u201cI commend President Trump and HUD Secretary Scott Turner for making the affordable housing issues a priority, and I thank Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott for getting this important bill across the finish line. I am also grateful that policies I have advocated for years are part of this package, all of which should help rural states like Mississippi,\u201d Hyde-Smith added.\n\nHyde-Smith has supported legislation, policies, and funding related to key rural and low-income housing programs that are addressed in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. These include:\n\nReforming Disaster Recovery \u2013 Provides a three-year reauthorization of the Community Development Block Grant\u2013Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program and establishes the HUD Office of Disaster Management and Resiliency to administer the program.\n\nPromoting New Bank Formation \u2013 Creates a two-year phase-in pilot program for de novo financial institutions that meet federal requirements to encourage the formation of new banks in underserved and rural areas, as based on the Promoting New Bank Formation Act of 2025 (S.113), which Hyde-Smith introduced. She initially introduced a similar bill in the 118th Congress.\n\nIncreasing Housing in Opportunity Zones \u2013 Allows HUD to give added weight to applicants serving areas located in, or primarily serving, designated Opportunity Zones to support housing preservation and construction. This section builds on the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which permanently renewed and enhanced the Opportunity Zone program, driving more than $100 billion of investment to rural and distressed communities. There are 100 designated Opportunity Zones in Mississippi.\n\nStreamlining Rural Housing \u2013 Directs HUD and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to coordinate on joint environmental reviews for housing projects funded by both agencies. Hyde-Smith cosponsored the HOUSE Act to repeal the HUD and USDA Final Determination on energy efficiency standards for new construction of HUD and USDA-financed housing that can add as much as $31,000 to the price of a new home.\n\nHousing Counseling and Financial Literacy Programs \u2013 Allows HUD to review the performance of housing counseling agencies and counselors to ensure counselors are providing the best information to counsel consumers on seeking, financing, maintaining, renting, or owning a home. Hyde-Smith has made self-sufficiency a priority as part of HUD appropriations funding.\n\nThe overall 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is the result of years of bipartisan, bicameral work to remove federal regulatory barriers to providing more abundant and affordable housing options for Americans. Importantly, the bill does not authorize any new federal spending.\n\nThe final bill includes provisions related to housing supply, rural housing, veterans\u2019 housing, homeownership, manufactured housing, disaster recovery, regulatory reform, and coordination and oversight of housing programs and agencies.\n\nA section-by-section summary of the measure signed by President Trump is available here. A Myth vs. Fact review is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-24T07:30:11Z", "2026-07-24T07:31:13Z"]], "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://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/hyde-smith-celebrates-new-affordable-housing-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8311210442334414, "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"}