There’s an old saying about laws and sausages: you don’t want to see how they are made. As somebody who raised hogs for many years, I can tell you that making sausage can be a lot more satisfying than making laws on a lot of days. So, a question that I am frequently asked is what is the trick to getting a piece of legislation signed into law? There isn’t a clear cut formula and the process can oftentimes be frustrating, especially when you are trying to make substantive changes to government programs that have gone unchecked for generations. Our founders didn’t want it to be easy to pass laws, though. That’s why they crafted a deliberate system in Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution requiring the House, Senate, and president to act. This week, I’ll do my best to outline how a major bill to reform many of our nation’s housing policies and programs made its way through each step of the process over the last year.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development marked its 50^th anniversary in 2015, the same year that I became chairman of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance. So, I met with public housing authority administrators and residents; apartment building owners; title agents; managers and tenants; realtors; home builders; lenders; low income housing advocates, and countless other groups of constituents to learn about their experiences with HUD itself and also the Rural Housing Service (RHS), which is a component of USDA.

From these meetings, I quickly came to the conclusion that the common theme across the spectrum was that Missourians wanted HUD to be modernized, since no major reforms had been enacted at the department since its establishment in 1965. In May of 2015, I organized a roundtable in the district for HUD Secretary Julian Castro to hear directly from Missourians about what programs needed to be eliminated, strengthened, or reformed at his department. It became clear from these conversations that legislation would be required to enact the reforms that were necessary at HUD and RHS in order to make the agencies work better and more efficiently for all Americans. 

These ideas led me to draft a piece of legislation, H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act, which I introduced in October of 2015. Another Missourian, Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor in order to build support on his side of the aisle. We held hearings and the bill passed out of the Financial Services Committee in December. In early February 2016, it came to the House floor for debate. After over a dozen amendments were considered on the House floor, the bill passed by a vote of 427-0. With passage in the House, that meant one hurdle was complete and there were two to go.

With the help of a few of my colleagues in the Senate, including Senator Roy Blunt, it wasn’t too long after that the legislation passed, once again, unanimously. I’m told that this is the first time since 1989 that a significant piece of legislation passed without the House and Senate unanimously. The last step was receiving the president’s signature and just a couple of weeks ago, I got the news that H.R. 3700 was officially signed into law.

H.R. 3700 is an example of writing a bill, working hard to educate individuals and colleagues, and ultimately seeing it signed into law. However, there are several reasons why this piece of legislation was so popular in Congress.

Not only does this make the first reforms to HUD and RHS in decades but this legislation makes strides in the housing industry to raise up those in need and to give Americans the opportunity to  live in homes they work hard to own – on their own, not through government assistance. This legislation also gives states and local housing agencies and private owners enhanced flexibility in meeting key program objectives such as reducing homelessness, improving access to higher-opportunity neighborhoods, and addressing repair needs in public housing. In addition, this legislation pays special attention to our homeless veterans and children aging out of foster care. And during a time when House Republicans are looking at every measure to save taxpayers money, my bill does just that – it saves taxpayers $310 million.

H.R. 3700 marked the first step in decades to reforming housing policies and programs across America. I look forward to working with you and my colleagues to make the next critical steps in this mission.