Bill cuts federal housing money from cities with weak squatting rules.
H.R. 9472 — The Protecting Homeowners from Squatters Act · Filed by Michael Lawler (R-NY) · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill stops federal housing money from going to cities that allow squatting. Squatting means living in a building without permission for 10 or more days. People must not pay rent. The Secretary of HUD makes a yearly list of cities that break this rule. Cities can take steps to fix the problem and get money back.
Who it affects
People trying to buy homes in cities on the list lose federal mortgage insurance. Low-income renters and homebuyers in those cities may find it harder to get help. Entire cities lose federal money for housing. This happens even if most people had nothing to do with squatting.
One thing to notice
The bill uses two different time periods for squatting. One type of federal money uses 10 days. Another type uses 14 days. The bill does not explain what cities must do to fix the problem.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jun 25, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 25, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- squatting — Living in a building without permission and without paying rent.
- federal mortgage insurance — Government promise to pay a lender if a homebuyer stops paying.
- Secretary of HUD — The federal official who runs the housing and urban development agency.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,878 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
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