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Addressing High Housing Costs
Housing costs keep rising. This can put homeownership out of reach for many Wisconsin families. In fact, from January 2017 to October 2025 the median price of a home in Wisconsin increased from $179,900 to $389,450. That is an increase of more than 46% in eight years.
Median Housing Prices in Wisconsin 2017-2025
I am working to make housing more affordable for Wisconsin families.
This week, the Financial Services Committee held a hearing on ways to support housing construction, lowers costs, and make life more affordable for Wisconsin families. We discussed the root causes of high housing costs, including a lack of supply, workforce needs, and costly government regulations.
It has become harder for first-time homeowners to afford a home.
An important driver of high housing prices is a lack of supply. America needs roughly 6 million more homes to meet housing demands.
One way to increase housing supply is to address our workforce needs. We need more carpenters, plumbers, and electricians in our workforce. These skilled trades workers build the homes that house working families throughout our state. Encouraging more high school students to enter the skilled trades will also provide them with good, family-supporting jobs without incurring college debt.
Government regulations are also driving up costs. I introduced nonpartisan legislation to reduce red tape, lower design costs, streamline zoning timelines, increase affordability, and accelerate construction. We discussed this bill and 39 other proposals during our hearing this week. To hear more about the work I am doing to make housing more affordable, click here.
Keeping Communist China Out of K-12 Schools
U.S. classrooms should be free from foreign influence. Curriculum should be transparent and parents should be empowered to know what their kids are learning in schools.
In recent years, adversaries like China have worked to spread propaganda, conduct espionage efforts, and steal intellectual property by targeting the United States. One way China does this is by influencing K-12 classrooms in America. These efforts are called Confucius Classrooms.
Congressional investigations highlighted that than 500 schools across 34 states had classrooms funded by or partnered with China. Wisconsin schools previously hosted Confucius Classrooms.
Confucius Classrooms are billed as cultural exchange or language learning programs. In reality, they are a key part of China's global influence campaign. Agreements vary by school, but provisions can contain:
- China-approved instructors
- China-sponsored events
- China-approved textbooks containing propaganda
- Pledges that teachers at schools do not damage the national interests of China.
U.S. schools should focus on teaching kids how to think, not what to think. Our classrooms should never be a hub for adversarial propaganda.
This week, the House passed H.R. 1005, 1049, and 1069 to protect our classrooms from adversarial nations by empowering parents, ensuring transparency, and protecting children.
These bills require K-12 schools to:
- Notify parents when their child's school receives funding, materials, or support from foreign governments or other flagged foreign entities.
- Stop partnering with Chinese government-affiliated programs, like Confucius Institutes, to continue receiving federal funds.
- Publicly disclose any foreign funding or contracts over $10,000, including those linked to adversarial nations.
- Ensure that parents can review any curriculum provided or funded by foreign governments.
This week, the House also voted to pass my bill, H.R. 4430, to support jobs and innovation. This legislation expands the ability of small and mid-sized companies to qualify as Well-Known Seasoned Issuers. This qualification streamlines the paperwork necessary for companies to raise capital to support workers, create jobs, and invest in our communities. This bill now heads to the Senate for passage.
Listen to my floor speech on how this bill can support Wisconsin workers above or at the link here.
Answering Your Questions
This week I joined Tim Bremel of WCLO Radio in Janesville to discuss my work in Washington, and the issues that matter to Wisconsin families. You can listen to our discussion below or at the link here.
As always, feel free to contact my office if you have any questions, want to share an opinion, or are having trouble with a federal agency.
On Wisconsin,
Bryan Steil
Member of Congress
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