President Donald Trump is leaning on Congress to tee up an affordability win ahead of November’s midterm elections, but entrenched GOP disagreement on a sweeping housing proposal threatens to derail it. 

Trump on Monday called on the House to swiftly approve Senate-passed legislation aimed at easing housing affordability that has languished in the lower chamber for several months. House Republicans, however, have balked at that request and are pitching a rival plan. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., teased earlier in the week that Republicans and Democrats would come together to bring a “bipartisan, bicameral bill to the president’s desk.”  

“I think everybody feels like it’s important, so we’re just working out some nuances,” Johnson said.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks at a press conference with House Republican leaders at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2026. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

TRUMP-BACKED AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERHAUL CLEARS SENATE, WHILE HOUSE GOP RAISES RED FLAGS

Senior House lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a modified version of the Senate’s 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which is expected to receive a vote in the lower chamber as early as next week. 

Any changes to the Senate’s proposal would force the upper chamber to consider the measure again, prolonging the timeline lawmakers can send legislation to Trump’s desk.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the chief architects of the Senate’s bill, declined to say whether she was speaking with her counterparts in the House about tweaks to the bill, and argued that lawmakers were running out of time to do something.

“There’s a housing crisis out there,” Warren said. “This bill can pass today if the House would just put it on the floor and vote on it.
We need to get started, and if the House has more ideas than they’d like to add, start another bill.” 

Some GOP lawmakers are not sweating the wait.

“We cannot take the Senate bill to the floor,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this week.

The political dynamics are much different in the Senate, however. And the housing bill passed with fewer than a dozen defectors in March — a rare feat in such a hyper-partisan Congress. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that the easiest route to putting the legislation on Trump’s desk is passing the Senate’s version.

“It’s been sitting over there for a while and the president’s weighed in on it. I think, you know, the White House made it clear, they would like to see the House pick up and pass the Senate bill,” Thune said. “We’ve done what we can do. It’s in the court of the House now.”

The House product struck out a controversial provision taking aim at the build-to-rent market that drew the opposition of conservatives, who argued the language amounted to excessive government interference in the housing market.

The clause in the Senate’s proposal would have specifically required some developers to sell single-family homes built for the purpose of renting within seven years after construction. The build-to-rent industry and opponents of the provision argued their properties provide a more affordable option for some Americans priced out of the housing market and could imperil the supply of rentals across the country.

“We’ve got to make sure we do it in a right way that continues to keep free markets,” Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said, adding that the clause in the Senate bill could make it “impossible” for some people to access housing.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are pitching rival housing bills as President Donald Trump looks for a legislative win on affordability. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kent Nishimura/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

FOREIGNERS ARE SNAPPING UP US HOMES AND STEALING THE AMERICAN DREAM OUT FROM UNDER FAMILIES

The proposal, however, would also weaken a ban on large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes — a priority of the Trump administration.

The House’s rival housing bill notably preserves a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) through 2030 that was included in the Senate’s legislation.

House conservatives raged at the Senate bill for stopping short of enacting a permanent CBDC ban — a top priority of GOP privacy hawks, who have sought to add the language to various legislative vehicles.

“It has to be permanent,” Cloud said. “We’ve got to put the nail in the coffin on it.”

House Financial Services Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., a co-author of the House’s rival housing package, said he shared Trump’s goal of expanding access to affordable homeownership in a statement Thursday.

“It cuts unnecessary barriers to new home construction, modernizes HUD programs, and allows banks to more freely deploy funding into their communities,” Hill said regarding the lower chamber’s proposal. “We must get this right — and I am committed to working hard to do that.”

Not everyone in the Senate is upset by the House’s decision to modify the bill. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., was one of the few lawmakers to vote against the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and told Fox News Digital that housing affordability isn’t something that’s dictated by the federal government.

Prospective buyers arrive during an open house in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., on May 9, 2026, amid rising mortgage rates that could slow the spring home sales season. (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“If you wanted to actually reduce housing costs, it’s local governments who are gonna have to allow more houses to be built,” Scott said. 

The legislative standoff comes as a recent Fox News poll found that nearly 80% of voters said housing costs were a problem for them or their family. The same survey also found that Democrats hold a lead over Republicans on inflation and the economy.

A prominent criminal profiler is warning that a suspected budding serial killer in Texas has allegedly started years earlier than expected and fears there may be more victims due to a six-year gap between murder charges.

Luis Benitez-Gonzalez, a 26-year-old previously deported Mexican national, is accused of strangling two women in the area of Austin, Texas, in 2018 and 2024.

Police announced his arrest earlier this week after two more women survived shootings in 2025, including one who fought back and police say swiped her attacker’s cellphone.

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Luis Benitez-Gonzalez has been accused of killing two women and shooting two more who survived. He is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was voluntarily deported in 2020, according to authorities. Austin police believe there may be more victims. (Austin Police Department)

We usually never find out who the first victims really were. I just wonder how many this guy has killed with his homicidal anger towards women over the years?

“The rub for me…is that he is accused of killing Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti when he was only about 18 years old,” said John Kelly, a criminal profiler who had been following the case since before Austin police and the U.S. Marshals announced an arrest. “We worked hard looking for this guy, because we believed there was a serial killer in this area. Little did we expect a budding serial killer who allegedly started killing at 18.”

Historically, most serial killers are older when they evolve into murderers, he said.

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Luis Benitez-Gonzalez is accused of murdering Alba Jenisse Aviles, 28, and Alyssa Ann Rivera, 34, in Texas during separate incidents. (Department of Homeland Security)

“This is extremely rare, as serial killers usually start killing between 23 to 35 years old,” the STALK Inc. founder told Fox News Digital. “We usually never find out who the first victims really were. I just wonder how many this guy has killed with his homicidal anger towards women over the years?”

Investigators working the case are asking the same question.

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“We believe that there is a strong likelihood that Benitez is responsible for further acts of extreme violence,” said Chris Anderson, a homicide detective with the Austin Police Department.

He said police are already looking into more cases for potential connections.

An image from Luis Benitez-Gonzalez’s arrest in Dallas by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force on April 27, 2026. He is accused of killing two women, shooting two more who survived, and Austin police say there may be more victims. (Austin Police Department)

He is urging anyone with additional information on Benitez-Gonzalez to contact the Austin Police Homicide unit at 512-974-8477 or Capital Area Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.

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The suspect, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who voluntarily self-deported in 2020 before reentering the country at an unknown time, is believed to have ties to Austin, Houston, Dallas and Hidalgo County.

WATCH: Texas authorities say illegal migrant charged in 2 murders, 2 shootings and more victims possible

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Authorities announced charges against him Tuesday in connection with the murders of Aviles-Marti and Alyssa Ann Rivera, whose remains were found just three miles away in 2024.

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Anderson said that it’s suspicious that there’s a six-year gap between the slayings and that evidence shows an alleged “repeated pattern of violence conducted against vulnerable female victims.”

“He has a 2018 case, and he has a 2024 case,” Anderson said. “People who commit crimes of this nature, with the very distinct MO, they usually don’t take a break.

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Benitez-Gonzalez is also accused of shooting two more women in Austin in November and December 2025. Both of them survived, which helped authorities catch Benitez-Gonzalez.

He allegedly claimed self-defense in all four cases, but authorities said they don’t believe him. He has not yet entered a plea.

An inconsistent cup of coffee can make or break your day — but new research is shedding light on just how the industry can dial up the production process for a more reliable flavor.

University of Oregon researchers repurposed a tool called a potentiostat, typically used to test batteries, to send an electrical current through coffee. 

Through this simple process, they were able to identify coffee’s “chemical fingerprint” that determines the drink’s flavor.

YOUR MORNING COFFEE COULD BE MAKING YOU MORE TIRED, EXPERTS WARN: ‘LIKE A ROLLER COASTER’

“It’s an objective way to make a statement about what people like in a cup of coffee,” university chemist Christopher Hendon, the lead researcher known around campus as “Dr. Coffee,” said in a news release.

Traditional tests mainly focus on measuring the strength of coffee. Yet many other factors go into the way coffee tastes, including roast color and extraction strength.

Scientists have discovered how to use electrochemistry to determine a particular coffee’s flavor. (iStock)

The team’s research shows how to move beyond measuring the strength of coffee alone to produce a more complete flavor profile cafés can replicate.

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“The reason you have an enjoyable cup of coffee is almost certainly that you have selected a coffee of a particular roast color and extracted it to a desired strength,” Hendon said. 

“Until now, we haven’t been able to separate those variables. Now we can diagnose what gives rise to that delicious cup.”

The new research will enable coffee shops to provide more consistent coffee flavors to customers. (iStock)

During testing, the researchers used four samples from the same English roaster and were able to identify a defective sample that had failed the roaster’s quality control, despite the identical appearance of all the batches.

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“In the short term, we hope this is something that will make a difference in coffee shops and in the coffee industry,” Hendon said.

A cup of coffee’s flavor is determined by more than its strength, researchers report. (iStock)

These findings, which the researchers published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, are remarkable, but they will take some time to drip down to the consumer, said Bryan Quoc Le, a consulting food scientist and founder and CEO of California-based Mendocino Food Consulting.

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“[The science] still relies on expensive components to make it work into a feasible technology,” Le told Fox News Digital.

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“The interesting bit here is that now we have a way to access the subjective quality in the taste and flavor of coffee using quantifiable measurements. Which means we could start seeing a serious improvement in the coffee game across all coffee shops over the years.”