Senate Committee Approves Three Shaheen-Led Bills to Lower Housing Costs, Improve Affordable Housing with Bipartisan Support

**The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs advanced a bipartisan package including three bills led by Shaheen to address housing costs and availability across New Hampshire**

(Washington, DC) – Three of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-NH) commonsense bills to address the high cost of housing and increase the supply of affordable housing units in the Granite State and across the country passed through the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs today. Shaheen’s bills—the Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act, the Streamlining Rural Housing Act and the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative in Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act—cleared the key hurdle unanimously and now head to the Senate floor.

“The high cost of rent and lack of affordable housing units—particularly in rural parts of our state—have reached a breaking point. That’s why I’m glad my colleagues came together in a bipartisan way to move forward this package, including three of my bills that will bring real relief to families grappling with sky-high housing prices,” said Senator Shaheen. “This package includes a wide range of solutions to lower housing costs and ensure all Granite Staters can afford a safe place to call home. I urge my colleagues to pass this bipartisan package through the Senate to deliver lasting solutions to one of the biggest challenges facing American families.”

The Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act, which Shaheen has championed for years, preserves housing units in rural areas and ensures that thousands of low-income tenants in rural areas are able to maintain access to safe and affordable housing. Shaheen's bill would protect access to affordable housing for families in rural areas that are often elderly or disabled, who are at risk of losing rental assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The Streamlining Rural Housing Act aims to streamline rural housing regulations between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and USDA by requiring the two agencies to enter into a memorandum of understanding to align housing standards. The bipartisan bill would simplify the process to build housing, lowering the cost and shortening project timelines for developers.

The Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative in Community Enhancement (PRICE) Act would invest in manufactured housing communities, especially resident-owned communities, by providing funding for home improvements and neighborhood upgrades for thousands of Americans each year.

The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act would also:

• Create a pilot program at HUD to offer grants and forgivable loans to low and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords to address home repair needs and health hazards.

• Establish new HUD programs to share best practices for zoning and land-use and work with communities to establish preapproved housing designs to help expedite local construction processes and build more homes.

• Empower states, local governments, and Indian tribes to streamline reviews and increase housing development by simplifying the environmental review process.

• Speed up critical repairs and safety improvements for homeowners by modernizing outdated review requirements.

• Improve transparency for veteran homebuyers by requiring that mortgage notices include information, including comparative costs, about the Department of Veterans Affairs’ home loan program.
• Provides flexible funding for communities that are building more housing supply, which can be used to improve community infrastructure, build housing and supplement water and sewer grants.

As a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies (Ag-FDA) Subcommittee, Shaheen has continually worked to ensure communities have the federal funding needed to tackle the housing affordability crisis. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Ag-FDA Appropriations bill, Shaheen fought to fully fund the Rental Assistance program so that participating families can remain housed, provides funding to preserve the existing affordable housing portfolio and makes $1 billion in financing available for very low-income homebuyers, many of whom are first-time homeowners. In the FY24 Ag-FDA bill, two Shaheen-led provisions were signed into law to help to preserve existing rural housing, build new housing in rural areas and protect low-income renters in rural areas from losing their homes.

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