The Trump administration “may declare a national housing emergency” as soon as this fall, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Labor Day breakfast interview with the Washington Examiner.

Although Bessent didn’t provide a specific action plan, the Examiner reported that standardizing building and zoning codes, decreasing closing costs and exempting certain construction materials from tariffs are potential options President Donald Trump and his advisers are exploring.

Bessent’s interview at a northern Virginia diner, conducted between sips of coffee and bites of an omelet, took place three days after a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to a top housing official about what they believe is a worsening housing crisis that has been exacerbated by Trump’s “chaotic tariff policies.”

The letter addressed to Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), was co-signed by Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

It strikes a highly critical tone, claiming Pulte has been preoccupied by recent allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who is alleged to have fraudulently claimed two homes as her primary residence. The letter also cites Pulte’s frequent social media posts about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s alleged mismanagement of a $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank’s headquarters, which the senators claim is “laying the groundwork for a pretext to fire” Powell.

“We urge you to reorder your priorities and begin taking meaningful actions to bring affordable housing and homeownership into reach for the American people,” the letter states.

In a response provided to Scotsman Guide, Pulte stated: “Elizabeth Warren, Jerome Powell, and Joe Biden made housing unaffordable these last 4 years, and we are doing everything we can to reverse their damage, including removing mortgage fraud.”

Housing policy proposals

The senators’ letter to Pulte lays out several policy suggestions they believe could lower housing finance costs and expand access to housing and homeownership.

Among the proposals is a plan that would require government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which Pulte is chairman of, to “prioritize lending for nonprofit and local government-driven housing models, such as community land trusts (CLTs), public housing, and other federally subsidized developments that preserve long-term affordability in local communities.”

The senators also encouraged Fannie and Freddie, which are overseen by Pulte’s FHFA, to “support liquidity for multifamily construction and rehabilitation lending for federally subsidized and mixed-income developments,” and to “focus on lending for projects that use lower-cost modular construction methods and office-to-housing conversions that help minimize construction costs.”

In August, Freddie Mac announced it was adding modern single-section factory-built homes to the properties eligible for financing through CHOICEHome, a financing program geared toward lower-income borrowers that launched in 2018. In an accompanying statement, Pulte said the CHOICEHome expansion “helps make more homes accessible to more Americans through the conventional mortgage market.”

In another move announced last month, the FHFA said it was increasing the amounts Fannie and Freddie can invest in Low Income Housing Tax Credit properties per year, doubling the caps on those investments from $1 billion to $2 billion for each company.

Pulte also rescinded a series of Biden-era housing policies shortly after taking office in March, including the termination of Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs) designed to expand credit access to underserved borrowers.

The letter from Warren, Schumer and Booker criticizes the SPCP decision, as well as the FHFA’s proposed repeal of a Biden-era regulation known as the Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans rule.

“To help expand access to credit and revive the dream of homeownership for millions across the country, you could reinstate these programs and initiatives that Fannie Mae and Freddie identified in their 2025-2027 Equitable Housing Finance Plans as helping first-time, first-generation, and higher income, lower wealth homebuyers overcome barriers related to downpayment and closing costs,” the senators proposed.

The letter closes by referencing a Jan. 20 executive order from President Trump that called on the heads of all executive departments and agencies to “deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker,” which included “pursuing appropriate actions to lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply.”

Calling housing and the American dream of homeownership the “backbone of this country,” the senators asked Pulte to “deliver emergency price relief, as the President has called on you to do.”

Should Trump decide to declare a housing emergency under the 1976 National Emergencies Act, the administration would have broader powers to potentially provide the price relief the president pledged to deliver on the first day of his second term in the White House.