On June 14, 1965, the House Democratic leadership rallied the majority to “support the President” and to fulfill “a specific pledge of the Democratic Platforms both in 1960 and 1964” by voting for H.R. 6927. They warned that the bill’s opponents’ claims that the transfer of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was a “downgrading” of that agency were bogus and that failure to transfer the agency would “hamstring” the new department. When Representative John N. Erlenborn (R-IL) offered an amendment deleting the transfer of FHA to the department, it was easily defeated. On June 16, the House passed the bill by a vote of 217 to 184 and on August 11, the Senate passed H.R. 6927 by a vote of 57 to 33. When President Johnson signed the bill into law on September 9, the Department of Housing and Urban Development became the first cabinet-level department established since the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was created in 1953.

John W. McCormack, Carl Albert, Hale Boggs. "Letter from John W. McCormack, Carl Albert, and Hale Boggs to Democratic House Colleagues Regarding H.R. 6927." Letter from John W. McCormack, Carl Albert, and Hale Boggs to Democratic House Colleagues Regarding H.R. 6927, June 14, 1965; “H.R. 6927 3 of 3” folder, Legislative Files, Box 9; Committee on Government Operations; 89th Congress; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233; National Archives.. Accessed 16 April 2024. https://acsc.lib.udel.edu/items/show/275.