House Republican Urges Trump to Sign Housing Bill, Agrees It’s a ‘Mistake’ Not To

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) agreed with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday that it would be a “mistake” for President Donald Trump not to sign a bipartisan housing bill, urging the president to back the legislation.

The bill, which Lawler helped write, passed through Congress before Trump canceled its signing ceremony last week, instead demanding the SAVE America Act be passed first. On Monday, he went further, calling the legislation “a yawn.”

“Do you think it’s a mistake if the president doesn’t sign it?” asked Collins on Thursday.

“I do,” said Lawler, “and I’ve said that directly to the president. I think he should sign it.”

He continued:

Look, this is a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican administration that worked together to produce the largest housing bill in 36 years. Most of the provisions are actually Republican. Six of my bills are in it. And what it fundamentally does is it cuts red tape, it increases access to capital, and it builds more housing to ultimately bring down prices. The biggest issue when it comes to affordability for Americans has to do with housing costs and rent, and so to me, this is one of the biggest issues that we can tackle.

According to The New York Times, Trump has three options — signing, vetoing, or neither.

“Under the Constitution, a president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign or return a bill once it has been presented to him. If he has not done either by the end of that period, it becomes law without his signature,” explained the Times. “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 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 on July 3 — or only when Congress is adjourned at the end of a session, which will not happen until the end of the year.”

Watch the full clip above via CNN.

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