A flagship law to facilitate Americans’ access to housing will officially come into force at midnight on Saturday, despite Donald Trump’s refusal to sign its promulgation.
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The text was touted by Republicans in Congress as a victory in the fight against the cost of living before the midterm elections in November.
It mainly aims to facilitate the construction of new homes, in particular by relaxing certain standards and speeding up environmental impact reviews.
Federal financial incentives will also be provided to communities that build more new housing.
The text, adopted with broad support from Republicans and Democrats alike, also prohibits large investment funds from purchasing individual homes, which should allow more families to access property and for the first time limits the role of Wall Street in the housing market.
But for Donald Trump, this text is of “minor importance” and “does not weigh heavily next to the SAVE America Act” – the name of another proposed law which would impose restrictions on voting methods.
For many weeks, the octogenarian president has been demanding that this “SAVE America Act” be adopted by Congress, even though his majority leaders are telling him that such adoption is highly unlikely due to Senate rules and a lack of support even in his camp.
At the end of June, a signing ceremony for the text on housing was catastrophically canceled at the Capitol in Washington, after the refusal announced by the president to promulgate this law.
Legally, a text approved by both houses of Congress comes into force ten days after its adoption, unless the president vetoes it or promulgates it before.
On Friday, Donald Trump again affirmed on his Truth Social network that he would not sign the law “as a sign of PROTEST because the US Senate is not capable of adopting the SAVE AMERICA ACT”, but he had previously signaled that he would not use his veto power.
He is trying to put pressure on his elected officials, but thus overshadowing one of the rare legislative victories on which the Republicans can count before November.
In the campaign which has already started, the cost of living remains a major theme, against a backdrop of persistent inflation due in particular to the war launched against Iran.
