A Democrat representative has laid out a plan to take $175 billion of funding from Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill for use on the "number one issue" of 2026.
California U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez suggested the housing affordability crisis could be solved with money cited in the upcoming bill but it would go to waste on the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. Speaking with Newsweek, Rep. Gomez said there needs to be an investment in people and their homes to tackle the rising cost of rent and lack of quality properties.
He said, "My intention with this bill is to tackle one of the biggest crises that our country is facing, which is the housing affordability crisis. And at the same time doing that by taking that $175 billion anti-immigrant slush fund that Trump put into his One Big Beautiful Bill and using that money to lower the cost of housing for everybody in the country."
Rep. Gomez would go on to cite the housing crisis as the biggest issue the country is facing not only this year, but last year and in the year ahead too.
The Democrat has since pieced together a bill of his own to counter the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Make Housing Affordable & Defend Democracy Act would see $175billion from the OBBB shifted to supporting housing solutions for Americans in need.
The money would be taken from the anti-immigration efforts of Trump's immigration so far, which has been heightened this past year with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Rep. Gomez said, "That $175 billion would be better used to help every single American live a better life. Housing is one of those major issues that I think cuts across political parties, cuts across regions."
"The average American now is considered rent burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. And that’s not just in blue states and blue cities. It was the number one issue in 2024, it’s the number one issue now in 2025 and will be the number one issue in 2026."
"If we want to make sure that people have more money in their pocket to start a small business, save for college, save for retirement, you have to deal with the housing cost that increases by double-digits every single year."
"If we don’t deal with it, then our families are going to struggle even more as time goes on. There’s only so many places you can move in this country. Eventually the housing crisis gets to you if it’s not already there."