Delivering a bipartisan bill to solve America’s housing crisis

When Artemis II’s Orion capsule spectacularly splashed into the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, I, along with millions of our fellow Americans, felt a jolt of patriotic exuberance far too uncommon in these tribalistic times. For the first time in half a century, and after decades of global cooperation, the United States had successfully sent a team of astronauts, including the first woman and first Black American in history, to the moon and safely back.

In our modern world of constant distraction and disparagement, it was a feat that, even if only for a brief moment, united the world in optimism. It reminded us of what can be achieved through collective action in service of a common goal. Although it may be challenging to keep Orion’s luminous light radiating throughout every community, I call on lawmakers to use this remarkable accomplishment as inspiration for another critically important moonshot here on Earth.

As many Americans are aware, the U.S. is currently facing a national housing affordability crisis. This crisis is not liberal or conservative, urban or rural. It is affecting every American community. 

In my hometown of Kansas City, Mo., there is a shortage of roughly 64,000 affordable housing units. Just 90 minutes down the highway in Marshall, Mo., a town of less than 14,000 faces a similar scarcity of housing. In both communities, families are struggling to keep up with rising housing costs due to a lack of development, forcing young adults to move back in with parents, saddling those who can afford to move out with increasingly unaffordable rents, and delaying the generational wealth that comes with homeownership. 

It may be pollyannish to assume that a significant portion of the American population are pulling for the federal government, but I........

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