After leading the effort to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing law earlier this year, the bipartisan Build America Caucus recently released a new ambitious agenda to boost residential construction in the U.S., according to a Multifamily Dive report.

The group of congressmembers is now focused on new ways to tackle development financing, restrictive zoning, building codes, and streamlining federal housing systems. 

For example, to address the difficulty of securing reliable and affordable financing, the caucus wants to establish a federal revolving loan fund that they believe will cost the government little.

The group also wants to speed up multifamily lending by modernizing HUD systems and underwriting processes with a focus on streamlining the Federal Housing Agency’s financing processes for infill housing. Another measure would create “right-to-build zones” for multifamily projects. Jurisdictions that opt in would receive more federal support in exchange for revamping zoning to allow multifamilies to be built by-right if a project meets certain criteria.

Another proposal would provide for some standardization of building codes across jurisdictions. Builders now face a patchwork of regulations across jurisdictions that complicates effort to scale production.

Also on the agenda: targeted tax relief for residential construction, allowing housing to be built on government property, as well as reforming the Buy America law. The latter measure mandates that certain projects receiving federal financial assistance use domestically produced building materials.

Another proposal would streamline regulations around transporting mass timber.