Raphael Warnock

The temperature is rising between Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (GA-D) and President Trump as a bipartisan housing bill with provisions to limit private equity's ability to purchase single-family homes passed Congress, then Trump said he would refuse to sign it.

Warnock sits on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and has spent much of his time in Washington since 2021 working toward housing reform. The senator has focused on banning private equity in the housing market, and he wrote multiple provisions in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to that effect. If signed, the bill would be the largest housing package in decades.

More than one in four single-family rental homes in Atlanta are owned by large corporations, according to Warnock, making Atlanta one of the cities with the highest rates in the country.

The ROAD to Housing Act passed both chambers with bipartisan support, but as lawmakers celebrated the win Wednesday morning, the president cancelled the signing ceremony. Trump said he would not sign the bill unless it included the SAVE America Act, a voter ID law. Warnock called the SAVE act "voter suppression legislation."

Here's what to know about the conflict over American housing.

What is in the bipartisan housing bill?

The expansive 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act helps Americans struggling to enter the housing market from multiple angles, from increasing financial counseling and literacy to rental assistance and home repair.

It builds on the ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate last fall, and was later passed by the House with bipartisan support.

Warnock championed provisions that would not only block private equity firms from purchasing single-family homes but would also modernize home appraisal processes, authorize local governments to build more infrastructure for housing, preserve rural properties for rural homeowners, provide grants for homeowners and landlords to weatherize their properties, and more.

"Not only is this bill about cutting regulatory red tape, lowering costs, and expanding housing supply while generating no new spending, but it's about making sure people like the single mom who raised me in North Charleston, South Carolina, have even greater access to economic opportunity and the American dream of homeownership," U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (SC-R) said in March.

Democrats and Republicans alike were touting the bill as a win for all Americans and a real step forward for a Congress that has spent much of the Trump Administration gridlocked.

"This is a major win for ordinary Americans and a great first step toward addressing the housing crisis that plagues our country," Warnock said in a June 23 statement. "For years, dreams have been deferred because too many are finding themselves in fierce competition with private equity. This bill will give families — not Wall Street investors — a fair shot at homeownership. I'm proud we were able to get this done."

'I'm not signing the housing bill,' Trump says

The bill was ready to be signed by the president on Wednesday morning, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt even writing a post on X announcing the signing late Tuesday.

"President Trump promised to lower housing costs, and he is delivering, making it easier for every family to achieve the American Dream of homeownership," Leavitt wrote. "Tomorrow's historic bill signing is another promise made, promise kept."

But in an abrupt change, Trump said he would not be signing the bill as planned.

Instead, he said he wanted to "see what happened" with the SAVE Act, a bill that requires government-issued identification and proof of citizenship to vote. Opponents of the bill say it acts as voter suppression, and worry that many people, from older adults to women who changed their name after marriage, will face additional hurdles. Proponents of the act claim it will eliminate fraudulent votes, which they say come from illegal immigrants or people trying to "steal" an election.

"Look, the housing bill is, housing I made billions of dollars with it, with housing. I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rates," Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office. "Lower the interest rates, and you can have all the housing you want."

He went on to once again attack former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, and say that he didn't want to harm the Americans who already own homes.

"These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses, they've become rich. I don't want to hurt them either," Trump said.

If Trump were to veto the bill, it could be overturned in Congress, but if Trump simply refuses to take action on the bill (sign it or veto it), the bill stays in limbo.

Warnock says Trump is 'so obsessed with himself' he made bill 'about Donald Trump'

Warnock did not mince words when speaking about Trump's stand against the bill, saying the president was making Congress' win about himself.

"I'm perturbed. I'm annoyed that instead of talking about housing, we're standing here talking about Donald Trump. He is so obsessed with himself that he keeps tripping over himself, which is a deep problem, but it has serious implications for everyday people," Warnock said in statements outside the Capitol on Wednesday. "Here he is on a day staged for him to take credit for legislation he did little to shape, he managed to make the story about what's going on with Donald Trump. And so that's a sad irony. ... Somebody ought to tell the President of the United States that he is a temporary resident of public housing. It's not his house, and he ought to get focused on making sure that the American people can buy a house and can afford rent. He ought to think about us for a change."

It's another example of harsh words thrown between the two politicians in recent months.

In February, Warnock accused the president of creating "the pretext to interfere" with the November midterm elections following federal raids of the Fulton County Election Hub in Union City, just south of Atlanta. Warnock said the accusations of election impropriety in Georgia would make it easier to allege fraud in the fall if the results of the election don't turn out the way Trump hoped.

The Trump-endorsed candidate for governor in the Republican primaries lost in a June runoff to a healthcare CEO and political outsider, Rick Jackson, though Jackson has publicly supported the president during his campaign. Trump's last-minute pick in the Republican Senate primary did win his runoff, but is facing incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff for possible control of the Senate.

In response to Warnock's accusations, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told USA TODAY in February the president is "committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters."

Irene Wright covers Georgia's politicians as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at [email protected].