Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday that he would send to President Trump a bipartisan housing bill cleared by Congress, despite the president’s decision a day earlier to scrap a much-anticipated signing ceremony for the measure.
Mr. Trump has yet to commit to signing the legislation, which he has diminished as being “of minor importance” even as members of his own party have celebrated it as a crucial victory that can lower housing costs.
Mr. Johnson’s announcement came after he had a lengthy meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House.
Sending the president a bill that has passed both chambers of Congress is normally a routine and unremarkable step. But it has taken on outsize significance given Mr. Trump’s reluctance to enact the housing measure, which his party badly wants to promote ahead of midterm congressional elections in which their control of Congress is in peril.
Mr. Johnson did not address whether Mr. Trump had promised to sign the housing bill or whether the two had even discussed it. He told reporters at the Capitol that he spent “a few hours” in the Oval Office and that he and the president were “on exactly the same page.”
But Republican leaders believed that they were on the same page with Mr. Trump this week, right up until the moment he abruptly canceled the bill-signing ceremony hours before it was to have taken place.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By formally transferring the bill, Mr. Johnson will start the clock on a constitutionally mandated period in which Mr. Trump must decide whether to veto or sign the bill.
Under the Constitution, a president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign or veto a bill. If he has not done either by the end of that period, it becomes law without his signature.
If Congress is adjourned when that 10-day period ends, the bill is killed in what is known as a “pocket veto.” Both chambers are scheduled to be in recess for 10 days beginning July 3, and some legal experts question whether a pocket veto can take place during a recess or only when Congress is formally adjourned at the end of a session, which will not happen until the end of the year.
Mr. Trump had been scheduled to sign the bill on Wednesday at the Capitol. But hours before the planned ceremony, as a stage was being constructed for the signing and House Republicans were proudly lauding the bill at a news conference, the president called off the signing, saying he would not enact the legislation until the Senate moved on an unrelated bill to impose nationwide voter restrictions.
Republicans view the housing bill as critical to boosting their chances in November’s elections, as they try to persuade voters that they are addressing high living costs. Polls show that the issue is key for many voters, who increasingly blame Mr. Trump for economic problems.
Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
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