June 16, 2025
The National Association of Home Builders has made another Congressional push for industry reforms that will increase housing affordability and reduce regulations.
More than 1,000 NAHB representatives went to Capitol Hill on June 12 for 250-plus meetings with U.S. Senators, Representatives, and legislative staff. They delivered a clear message.
“The best way to ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis and boost housing production is to break down the barriers that are impeding new home and apartment construction,” said NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes, a home builder and developer from Lexington, N.C.
The agenda for the organization focused on three key issues: energy codes; tax policy and workforce development, which indirectly has a local angle. The U.S. Department of Labor recently moved to shutter Job Corps Centers across the nation, including one in St. Petersburg.
Job Corps could be a key to increasing available workers in the construction industry. According to a report from WUSF, one Job Corps student already has deferred her plans to become a carpenter because of the Labor Department’s decision and will now join the military.
The Labor Department’s decision came with minimal notice and threatens to displace thousands of students, including those in St. Petersburg. A judge’s temporary order has delayed the decision and the city’s Warehouse Arts District is rallying Job Corps students and supporters.
They have an ally in Hughes, the NAHB chairman.
“A better solution would be to implement reforms to the Job Corps program as outlined in A Stronger Workforce for America Act,” Hughes said in a May 31 statement. “NAHB urges Congress and the Trump administration to take immediate action to ensure programs are available to help better train prospective trade workers and strengthen America’s construction workforce pipeline.”
In addition to reforming Job Corps, the NAHB is calling for passage of the CONSTRUCTS Act, bipartisan legislation that aims to prepare more adults for rewarding careers in construction and other essential trades.
As for energy codes, NAHB contends that the minimum energy currently required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture can add as much as $31,000 to the cost of a new home. The association seeks the passage of a bill that would prevent the energy requirements. It also seeks passage of the Energy Choice Act that would prevent state and local governments from banning the use of natural energy in new homes.
“A gas ban would exacerbate the housing affordability crisis by increasing costs on new homes, eliminate consumer choice and further strain America’s already stressed electrical grid,” NAHB said in a statement.
The tax policy requests from the organization include extending pro-housing policies in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, preserving longstanding energy tax incentives, and addressing limitations placed on the state and local tax deduction cap that burdens homeowners in high-cost areas.