WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today introduced the Build Now Act, which would incentivize new home construction by tying federal funds to cities’ rates of homebuilding. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Kennedy in introducing the bill.

“In my book, homeownership shouldn’t be a pipe dream for the average American family. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with me. Government overregulation has brought homebuilding to a grinding halt and left ordinary people twisting in the wind as existing home prices went through the roof. I’m proud to introduce the Build Now Act to discourage pointless roadblocks and incentivize cities to help make the American Dream possible again,” said Kennedy. 

“Americans are suffering under sky-high housing prices caused by a worsening housing shortage. The Federal government should use the tools at our disposal to reward communities that are taking bold action to build more housing and reduce families’ biggest monthly expense. It’s time for Congress to act—and this bipartisan proposal is a call to action to communities across the country to build housing now,” said Warren.

The United States today faces a housing crisis. Since 2021, the annual income needed to qualify for a mortgage has increased by 60%, driving the median age of a first-time home buyer to a record-high 38 years old.

By May 2025, new home construction rates had collapsed to their lowest level since the pandemic. On an annual basis, new home construction has fallen nearly 5%. 

Currently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) provides annual grants to states, cities and counties irrespective of their rate of homebuilding.

The Build Now Act would:

• Require HUD to remove 10% of CDBG funding from cities that fail to improve their rate of homebuilding above the national median.

• Order HUD to proportionally reallocate those CDBG funds to cities that exceeded the national median rate of homebuilding. Under the Build Now Act, cities with the highest rates of growth would receive larger shares as funds are reallocated.

• Allow metropolitan areas two years to start building homes before HUD determines their level of CDBG funding.

The bill would not apply to cities where the median home value is below the national median or cities that issued an emergency disaster declaration in the last year.

In his role on the Senate Banking Committee, Kennedy has championed the cause of making homeownership easier for families, raising the issue frequently during recent hearings:

• In Jan. 2025, Kennedy questioned then-HUD Secretary nominee Scott Turner about the failures of previous affordable housing policies. During this hearing, he suggested an approach that would incentivize localities to allow more new home construction without affording excessive power to the federal government.

• At a hearing one week later, Kennedy outlined a potential “carrot-and-stick” system that would spur new home construction while allowing local governments to determine their exact means of doing so.

• In Feb. 2025, Kennedy questioned then-Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency nominee Bill Pulte on the consequences of Americans borrowing large amounts of money to buy homes, noting that “we’ve got a house of cards here.”

Full text of the bill is available here.