Regulations Raise Cost of Building Homes by 38 Percent, Cut Red Tape to Help Housing Market Rep Eri

We're talking about your affordable homes act which I hear is on the floor tomorrow. It is. >> Um so what inspired you to write that and how are your constituents responding to it? >> Well the constituency I think is responding very well to um any effort that we're trying to do to reduce cost. We've been suffering under the Biden economy for many years. Uh since the overspending and co we still haven't really recovered from that economically. Uh it's going to take a while. Uh but one of the things I hear about most especially from young people is that it is very difficult for them to purchase their first home. So, the Affordable Homes Act takes a Biden era uh regulation under the Department of Energy, which was for energy efficiency standards under the Green New Deal uh that increase the cost of manufactured housing by 10 to $15,000 per door per unit uh just based on these energy arbitrary energy efficiency standards. Manufactured housing is among the most energy efficient housing uh that that we have, especially for first-time home buyers. So, it's a myth to say that manufactured housing was somehow not already energy efficient. Add on these standards on top of that, uh, it it unnecessarily increase the cost of owning a home for a population and a and people who are trying to buy their first home that could least afford to prioritize energy efficiency over a roof over their head. So, the affordable homes act is uh puts HUD, the housing and urban urban development uh squarely in charge of manufactured housing regulation. It removes these Biden era 2022 energy efficiency standards which were adding to the cost of owning a home. And it allows for DOE to have a an advisory role on energy efficiency for the housing and urban development um agency, but not authority. Uh this clarity will uh result in I think more manufactured housing being built >> and the cost reductions that we're seeing in this bill will result in more people being able to to get in and and realize the um the benefits of home ownership. It sounds like a big part of what's driving up the cost is the energy regulations that we've seen from the Department of Energy. So could you just explain for our audience how much of a chunk of those regulations actually causes the price spikes that we're seeing with the cost of housing? >> Well, if you think about just this regulation alone, this is one regulation that was from the Department of Energy, one federal agency, one regulation adding to the cost of owning a manu manufactured home 10 to $15,000 per door. That's one. Now then you add on to that many other federal regulations. You add state and local regulations and regulation alone contributes up to 38% of the cost of building a home and that's only in regulation. So if we can cut the red tape, this is one thing we can do. Should we do more and will we do more? Absolutely. But this is one thing we can do to help first-time home owner owners achieve the American dream of home owner home ownership. Do we do we want to do more? Absolutely. We want to follow President Trump's lead. He is leading on on trying to reduce the cost of owning a home too by his new proposal, right? >> Uh which will um not allow investors to purch. It's only for single family homes or for single families, not um these big invest investment uh companies. So, I'm pretty um certainly grateful that this bill is going to be on uh passing through the House this week and uh grateful to my uh co-leads uh Congressman Mike Flood and Jake Aenclauss. It's a bipartisan bill. We actually got 30 Republicans to vote for the bill in the committee which was um unanimous. 30 Republicans >> 30 Republicans and 16 Democrats voted for the bill out of committee. We do expect some Democrat support on the floor when this bill comes. Uh and it's a great great first step. We're very excited to see it happen. This cannot come soon enough for for young American families. >> Can you address the other side of the aisle with regards to those who may be opposed to this? We'll see this probably in the debate tomorrow if you haven't already debated this bill, but some would say that it's it would cause uh trouble for the environment or it wouldn't do enough to protect the environment if you eliminate these regulations. What would you say to those who are critical of it? >> We had these debates in committee. Uh a couple of things that I would say is manufactured housing is already energy efficient. um this is an unnecessary and arbitrary standard on top of what's already very efficient housing. Second, when we are having families that can't afford to get in a home, uh that's the chief concern that we should be focused on. Let's get people let's get roofs over people's heads. Let's let them achieve the dream of home ownership by getting into a home and let them through personal choice decide the energy efficiency and that they want in order to make their monthly budgets, not force the issue of energy efficiency upfront, thereby making the cost of housing too much for them to afford and put them into a rental unit or worse. um let's reduce that cost upfront and let them decide for themselves how energy efficient they want to be based on their household budgets. >> It looks like this affordability issue with regards to housing and other issues will be a main messaging point from Republicans this year as we approach the midterms. Democrats are of course trying to push that message very strongly at this point. Was that a big topic at your retreat on Tuesday with the president? >> We talked about many things at the retreat. Uh this is certainly something that we discussed is how do we talk to the American people about what we've already done uh in the one big beautiful bill, the tax relief that's coming uh the reduction in healthcare premiums by 11% based on the healthcare bill that we passed at the end of the year. We have to tell the story about what we've done in 2025 and what we're going to do in 2026. And affordability is something that the American people are concerned about. I think once this this uh working families tax cut comes into effect, people start to see the benefits of that, the health care bill reducing premiums by 11%. This economy is going to come roaring back and I think that um some of these um concerns of Democrats are going to um certainly they're going to still say them. They're still going to talk about them, right? But the reality is it won't be felt as much back home. And that's what's most important. Let's get that relief. I think it's coming. Uh I'm certainly going to keep working every single day to keep driving down the cost and keep boosting this economy. GDP growth is is has been well above the Congressional Budget Office's projections. I think we're at 4% and they were projecting 1.8%. CBO always undervalues what we think growth will be. So to think that the e we're having 4% economic growth now when under the Biden years it was pretty stagnant is remarkable and I think we will see the benefits of that in 26. There's now talk about a second reconciliation bill. Is this something that you all would be including in that reconciliation bill? Does housing have a place in that? >> I will certainly be advocating for not only housing um but also healthcare. Uh we've got a lot we can still do on healthcare reform. Uh we've done a lot. We did some PBM reform, some transparency, again, reducing the cost of premiums by 11% in the healthcare bill that we did. Can we and should we do more? Yes. I mean, if if we didn't have things to do here, we would all be out of jobs. Um, there's always work to be done. I think it is incumbent upon us to listen to the American people and respond in ways that we think are fiscally responsible and we'll solve the problem and that's what we're going to be focused on. >> I'd like to ask you before you go about the ACA vote you just took. So, um, it passed, I think. Um, what is your message to those Republicans who broke with leadership on this, making it a more politically sensitive issue than it already is? >> Well, in in the district back home, what we've been telling people and and what is true is that what the Democrats did with the Affordable Care Act, they broke the health care system. Uh, it was not affordable. It turned out to be completely unaffordable to the point where we had to subsidize healthcare premiums. And these subsidies were going to tens of thousands of dollars in subsidies for healthcare premiums were going to millionaires. That's what the Democrats were fighting for as well as um $350 billion direct to insurance companies. The American people never would see a dime, not one dime, not $1 of the premium subsidy. It was going directly to insurance companies. President Trump said it really well. That money should go directly to the American people. And I agree. I think it should go to the American people. Let's let's expand health savings accounts like we did in the in the most recent healthcare legislation, but let's also open up the private market for more underwriting, which is is the antithesis to what they did under the Affordable Care Act. They wanted no competition. We want more competition. We want more underwriting of of these private plans that will drive down the cost. And um to the to the Republicans that broke with leadership, you know, everybody here in this in this building represents their own districts, right? I I took a vote that I thought was representative of the district because I don't want taxpayers to continue to fund the bills and to provide um high salaries for insurance companies. I want this uh I want to do things that actually drive down the cost of healthcare like we did in the in the healthcare bill at the end of the year. >> I didn't ask you about the Senate support for your affordable homes act. Um, do you have Senate support? Have Do you have like a partner bill over in the Senate with Democrats on it? Do you think they >> There's not currently a companion bill in the Senate. We do hope that this bill will move through the Senate and ultimately end up at on the president's desk. >> Okay. Thank you so much for your time, Congresswoman.