Does Anyone Know Where the Housing Bill Is? This GOP Leader Doesn’t.
Earlier this week, the Senate and then the House passed the biggest housing bill in decades by veto-proof margins, and it was set to be signed by President Trump on Wednesday before he abruptly cancelled the ceremony and demanded Congress first pass his voter-suppressing SAVE America Act. But where, literally, is the bill right now? There seems to be some confusion about that—and it has major implications for the bill’s fate.
Michigan Congresswoman Lisa McClain, who chairs the House Republican Conference, said Thursday the bill was on Trump’s desk. If so, that means he has 10 days to sign or uselessly veto it, and if he does neither it could either automatically become law or die by the “pocket veto,” depending on whether Congress is in session on day 10. (I know, it’s confusing.)
“It’s been sent to the president’s desk, [and] it’ll pass in ten days if he doesn’t sign it, is that your understanding?” Leah Vredenbregt of Gray Media asked McClain.
“Yep,” she replied.
But multiple outlets report that the House has not, in fact, sent the bill to Trump.
“House GOP leaders *still* have not sent the housing bill to the White House, I’m told—so the 10-day clock still has not started,” Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller wrote Thursday morning. “Trump and [House Speaker Mike] Johnson are expected to discuss when to send the bill—and start the clock—at their meeting this afternoon, I’m told.”
The same remained true hours later.
“This is not correct,” Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman wrote in reference to McClain’s comments. “The House Republican leadership has not sent the president this bill yet. It is not ‘on his desk.’”
This confusion is as strange as it sounds. Why would McClain claim that it’s on the president’s desk if it isn’t? And if it’s not on his desk, which means the ten-day countdown has not begun, then when is Johnson planning to send it to him? Is he waiting to do so until he knows Congress will be in session on that tenth day, rather than on July 4th recess?
Someone must have the answers, but McClain certainly does not.
