‘It’s Ridiculous’: Santa Barbara Congressmember Calls Out Trump for Holding Bipartisan Housing Bill Hostage

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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Last week, Congress passed the biggest piece of legislation aimed at bolstering affordable housing in decades. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act would create nearly 50 provisions aimed at making affordable housing development and home ownership easier to achieve, including creating programs to facilitate the funding and construction of affordable housing, banning private equity from buying single-family homes en masse and removing restrictions for manufactured home construction. The act enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, passing the Senate 85 to five and the House 358 to 32. 

But that act is one step short of becoming law. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump canceled the bill’s signing. He said that he would not sign the act unless the Senate passed a separate piece of legislation: the SAVE (or Safeguard American Voter Registration) America Act. This act, which passed the House in April but fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, would require that people provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote. Critics of the act say it will exclude low-income voters, married women, rural voters, people of color and young voters from the democratic process. Trump said he considered the act to be a national emergency in a Wednesday post on his social media platform, Truth Social. 

House Representative Salud Carbajal, whose congressional district includes Santa Barbara County, said that President Trump was holding the legislation hostage for political gain. 

“It’s ridiculous that this president would sabotage something that is bipartisan and a benefit for the American people for his political, neurotic agenda,” Carbajal told the Independent. 

Carbajal called the SAVE Act a voter-suppression bill and said Trump’s actions show his desperation to hold onto power. Last week, Trump’s approval rating sat at 37 percent.

Representative Carbajal co-sponsored the Decent Affordable Safe Housing for All (DASH) Act, a House bill that addressed homelessness and aimed to create pathways for more affordable housing. Part of that bill is incorporated into the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. 

For Santa Barbara County, where the average home price is more than $1 million and more than half the county’s tenants spend more than a third of their income on rent, the Road to Housing Act would provide pathways to fund and build more affordable homes. Rob Fredericks, the executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, described the act as “making the rules of the road easier” for building affordable housing. 

Santa Barbara and other communities won’t see dollars directly from the act, but if it passes, they will have more pathways for funding. For example, the act raises the cap on public welfare investments from 15 percent to 20 percent, meaning banks can put more money into low-income tax credits that help fund affordable housing projects. 

A bill can still become law if the president does not sign it; either a 10-day timeline (excluding Sundays) runs out, or the president vetoes the bill, and Congress overturns the veto with a supermajority. On Thursday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said he plans to send the bill to Trump’s desk. Only then will the 10-day countdown start.