Every once in a while—usually when housing affordability becomes so painfully obvious that even Congress can’t ignore it—Washington calls a meeting.
They give it a hopeful title.
They line up serious-looking witnesses.
They issue a polished press release afterward that reads like progress has been made.
And then… nothing gets built.
Last week’s House Oversight hearing, “Making Housing More Affordable Makes the American Dream More Attainable,” was a masterclass in exactly that tradition. If you’ve been in housing or construction longer than five minutes, you already know how this movie ends. Spoiler alert: the credits roll before the first shovel hits dirt.
The Room Where Nothing Happens (Again)
Picture the scene. A long table. Microphones. Nameplates. Earnest nodding. Carefully chosen soundbites. Everyone agrees there’s a housing crisis. Everyone agrees it’s hurting working families. Everyone agrees something must be done.
And just like that—agreement achieved. Housing solved. Let’s all go to lunch.
The witnesses did what witnesses always do. They identified barriers. They cited zoning. They blamed regulation. They invoked the free market. They warned of overreach. They talked about “unintended consequences” with the kind of gravity usually reserved for foreign policy briefings.
If housing were solved by diagnosing the problem, we’d be drowning in affordable homes by now.
White Papers: America’s Most Abundant Building Material
The wrap-up press release is a familiar piece of Washington craftsmanship. It neatly summarizes testimony. It highlights “important discussions.” It references ideas that “could inform future policy.”
Could. Might. Should.
Those three words are the structural insulated panels of political language—lightweight, well-insulated, and never actually installed on a jobsite.
What the release does not mention is any legislation moving forward, any funding allocated, any pilot program launched, or any regulatory pathway simplified. No timelines. No owners. No accountability.
Just another PDF added to the growing national stockpile of housing-related white papers—America’s most overproduced construction product.
The Missing People in the Room
What struck me most wasn’t what was said. It was who wasn’t really there.
I didn’t hear much from people who have actually started factories.
I didn’t hear from people who’ve missed payroll while waiting on approvals.
I didn’t hear from anyone who’s watched a modular production line sit idle because a site wasn’t ready—or a permit was delayed—or financing fell apart at the eleventh hour.
Instead, we heard from people who are very good at talking about housing, but rarely have to make housing happen on a schedule, on a budget, with real consequences.
You can’t policy your way into a factory.
You can’t regulate your way into speed.
And you certainly can’t committee your way into affordability.
Factories don’t run on rhetoric. They run on cash flow, labor, logistics, and brutal reality.
Modular: Always the Idea, Never the Plan
As usual, modular and offsite construction floated through the conversation like a promising intern—everyone likes the idea, nobody gives it real authority.
“We should explore modular.”
“We should encourage innovation.”
“We should look at alternative construction methods.”
I’ve been hearing those exact sentences since before some of the people in that hearing room were elected. Modular doesn’t need more encouragement. It needs fewer obstacles and more adults in the room who understand manufacturing.
You don’t “encourage” a factory into existence. You design it, finance it, staff it, and protect it from death by a thousand well-intentioned policy cuts.
The American Dream, Now With More Meetings
The title of the hearing promises the American Dream. That’s a bold promise for an event that didn’t produce a single actionable outcome.
The dream, apparently, is alive and well—as long as you define it as:
- More hearings
- More testimony
- More press releases
- More future discussions
Meanwhile, builders can’t pencil deals.
Factories hesitate to expand.
Developers wait for clarity that never arrives.
And families keep renting, waiting, and paying more.
But don’t worry. There will be another hearing.
Why This Keeps Happening
This isn’t a failure of intention. Most people in that room genuinely want housing to be more affordable. The problem is structural.
Washington operates on optics, not operations.
Housing is operational.
Factories are operational.
Construction is unforgivingly operational.
Until hearings include people who have scars from failed startups, gray hair from production delays, and spreadsheets that show how quickly “affordable” turns into “unfinanceable,” we’ll keep having these meetings.
They’ll keep sounding productive.
They’ll keep feeling urgent.
And they’ll keep producing exactly what this one did: rhetoric with a press release.
The Modcoach Bottom Line
Did the hearing produce anything beyond rhetoric?
No.
It produced alignment without execution.
Concern without commitment.
Awareness without action.
And that may be good politics—but it’s lousy housing policy.
If Congress truly wants to make the American Dream attainable again, the next meeting should look very different. Fewer microphones. Fewer talking points. More factory owners. More builders. More people who know exactly how hard this actually is.
Until then, we’ll keep meeting about housing while not building it.
And the dream will remain just that—a talking point, neatly summarized at the end of a hearing wrap-up.
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With more than 10,000 published articles on modular and offsite construction, Gary Fleisher remains one of the most trusted voices in the industry.
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