{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccormick.senate.gov/news/press-releases/watch-senator-mccormick-delivers-floor-speech-in-support-of-road-to-housing-act/", "Watch: Senator McCormick Delivers Floor Speech in Support of ROAD to Housing Act", "2026-03-05", "2026", "2026-03", "Republican", "Senate", "PA", "David McCormick", "M001243", "www.mccormick.senate.gov", "davemccormick", "https://www.mccormick.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cThe ROAD to Housing Act represents the most consequential federal action on housing in a generation. Passing through the Banking Committee with a unanimous, 24-to-0 vote, it\u2019s also proof that the Senate can address important issues in a bipartisan way.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor in support of the ROAD to Housing Act.\n\nClick here to watch the video.\n\nSenator McCormick\u2019s remarks below (as prepared):\n\n\u201cMr. President, I rise today in support of the ROAD to Housing Act.\n\n\u201cI grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania, in a town called Bloomsburg, believing in a simple deal: work hard, play by the rules and you can build a life in your own home.\n\n\u201cBut that promise \u2013 the American Dream \u2013 has become increasingly out of reach for families across our great Commonwealth. There are too few homes to buy and too many aging homes that families can\u2019t afford to maintain.\n\n\u201cThe numbers tell a clear and disturbing story: Pennsylvania is short 100,000 homes today \u2013 that\u2019s the same number as seats in Penn State\u2019s Beaver Stadium. Median home prices have hit an all-time high of $325,000. Rent has surged. And more than half our housing stock is over 50 years old, which means greater repair costs for homeowners already struggling with tight budgets.\n\n\u201cThe absence of good, new, affordable housing has locked out young families. When I was a teenager, the median age of a first-time homebuyer was 29. Today it is 40.\n\n\u201cThat is an entire decade of homeownership and wealth-building that has been lost by a generation.\n\n\u201cAmerican families did not create this problem. Washington did. Major federal housing programs have been funded for decades without serious reform. Some\n\nhaven\u2019t been updated since the 1960\u2019s.\n\n\u201cThe Biden administration had four years to address this crisis. Instead, more bureaucracy, more mandates, and reckless spending drove this problem off a cliff. From the rowhouses of Philadelphia to the small towns of the Monongahela Valley, home prices across our Commonwealth have risen more than 75 percent since 2020. Nationally, the average monthly mortgage payment is over $1000 higher than when President Biden took office.\n\n\u201cLast year, I visited Bedford Dwellings in Pittsburgh\u2019s historic Hill District with HUD Secretary Turner. We spoke with great Pennsylvanians who feel the American Dream is increasingly out of reach. I hear this feedback everywhere I go across the Commonwealth.\n\n\u201cThis is a big problem. It\u2019s an unacceptable problem. And it\u2019s time for a new direction.\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s leadership is lowering housing costs for American families. He cut red tape in permitting and construction and directed key agencies to keep Wall Street out of the starter home market. And he delivered the most significant federal investment in affordable housing in decades via the Working Families Tax Cut Act.\n\n\u201cToday, the Senate has an opportunity to build on this progress \u2014 in a serious, bipartisan way \u2014 by passing the ROAD to Housing Act.\n\n\u201cThe bill advances three goals.\n\n\u201cFirst: build more. The Act cuts the red tape, lowers costs, and speeds up zoning and permitting.\n\n\u201cSecond: fix what we have. Grants and forgivable loans are provided to low-income homeowners for repairs, helping preserve home values and helping stabilize neighborhoods.\n\n\u201cThird: empower communities, not bureaucrats. Local leaders are empowered to make decisions that fit their towns. The federal government should be a partner not a gatekeeper.\n\n\u201cGuided by these principles, the ROAD to Housing Act represents the most consequential federal action on housing in a generation. Passing through the Banking Committee with a unanimous, 24-to-0 vote, it\u2019s also proof that the Senate can address important issues in a bipartisan way.\n\n\u201cI\u2018m particularly proud of the amendments my friend and colleague, Senator Fetterman, and I championed together that protect Pennsylvania workers, veterans, and homeowners.\n\n\u201cFor example, I was the lead or co-lead on six provisions that will help ensure Pennsylvanians \u2013 including our 800,000 veterans \u2013 can afford good homes without risk of falling through the cracks.\n\n\u201cThe bill and my provisions also empower Pennsylvania\u2019s community lenders. There is a scene in \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d where George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart \u2013 who, by the way, was a native of my dad\u2019s hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania \u2013 fights to save the Bailey Building and Loan.\n\n\u201cThis was the community lender in the fictional town of Bedford Falls that knew every borrower by name and made the mortgages that helped ordinary people own homes.\n\n\u201cThat model once helped build \u201ca wonderful life\u201d for generations of Americans. But we have regulated it so heavily that community lenders who want to serve their neighbors can\u2019t make the math work.\n\n\u201cHomeownership for most young families shouldn\u2019t exist only in the movies. It should exist in Bloomsburg and Bradford and Braddock and every Pennsylvania community where a local lender knows the borrower and wants to say yes. This bill takes important steps in that direction.\n\n\u201cAnd one more thing: the ROAD to Housing Act builds on President Trump\u2019s efforts and takes on Wall Street landlords competing directly with first-time buyers for single-family homes. The housing market should work for Main Street \u2013 not Wall Street.\n\n\u201cFor ALL these many reasons, I am proud to stand in support the ROAD to Housing Act. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote yes \u2014 and make the American Dream of homeownership possible again for the next generation of Pennsylvanians.\n\n\u201cI yield the floor.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "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.mccormick.senate.gov/news/press-releases/watch-senator-mccormick-delivers-floor-speech-in-support-of-road-to-housing-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5458590351045132, "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"}