The Three Potential Fates for the Stalled Housing Bill

The fate of a bipartisan housing bill that cleared Congress overwhelmingly is in limbo after President Donald Trump canceled his plans on Wednesday to sign it at a ceremony at the Capitol.

Trump has dismissed the bill as “minor,” and he has not made clear whether he plans to eventually sign it. But after a meeting at the White House on Thursday afternoon, Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would formally present the bill to Trump for his signature. “We’re on exactly the same page,” he told reporters at the Capitol.

Once Congress presents the bill to Trump, the president has three options:

Here’s a closer look at the three pathways by which the legislation could become law or die.

Inaction by Trump Could Save the Bill — or Tank It

Sending the legislation to Trump is the simplest path forward. Under the U.S. Constitution, a president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign or return a bill. If he has not done either by the end of that period, it becomes law without his signature.

But there’s a catch. If Congress is adjourned when that 10-day period ends, the unsigned bill is killed in what is known as a “pocket veto.” There are outstanding legal questions about whether this would happen during a congressional recess — when the chambers are out of session temporarily, as the House and the Senate are scheduled to be for 10 days beginning July 3, and for most of August — or only when Congress is adjourned at the end of a session, which will not happen until the end of the year.

Johnson did not address whether he was concerned about a potential pocket veto.

Trump Signs the Bill

The White House has declined to say whether the president might sign the bill another time. Trump told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he was “not signing the housing bill,” pointing again to his demand that the Senate pass legislation that would impose national restrictions on voter registration and voting by mail.

But Trump has previously made the same kind of threat, only to relent. Congressional Republicans, eager to celebrate a bill they can point to as evidence that they are addressing voters’ concerns about high living costs, are likely to continue pressuring him.

Trump Vetoes the Bill

Trump has been consistently lukewarm about the housing measure, making it clear he does not consider it a priority, and has criticized it in recent days. Should he decide to veto it outright, Republicans in Congress would have to decide whether they wanted to try to rally their members to defy him in an effort to push it into law anyway.

That would take two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate, a threshold the bill easily cleared in both chambers this week, but one that might be more difficult to reach again if the president came out strongly against the legislation in a veto message.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Ashley Wu and Michael Gold/Doug Mills
c. 2026 The New York Times Company

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