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Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after introducing the Local Zoning and Property Rights Protection Act which would prohibit the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from implementing a new regulation known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH):
“The calling card of the Obama Administration has been to use overreaching executive mandates and regulations to force American families, businesses and consumers into complying with its far-left, utopian ideology. The AFFH rule, soon to be implemented by HUD, is no different. AFFH is another top-down, social engineering experiment concocted by bureaucrats in Washington D.C. that attempts to federalize local zoning decisions.
“Similar to other big government policies from this administration, the flawed AFFH regulation will result in more harm than good by way of increased taxes, depressed property values and further harm to impoverished communities. This is extortion and the Obama Administration should not be mandating that millions of dollars in grant money for local communities be dependent on turning over local zoning decisions to the federal government.
“Local zoning decisions have traditionally been, and should always be, made by local communities and municipalities. American citizens should be free to choose where they would like to live and not be subject to neighborhood engineering and gerrymandering at the behest of an overreaching federal government.”
Background
The full text of the Local Zoning and Property Rights Protection Act can be found HERE.
Rep. Gosar’s legislation rejects HUD’s overreach by requiring a withdrawal of the AFFH Rule and the Assessment Tool used to implement the rule. Furthermore, the bill includes an important federalism provision that requires HUD to consult with local governments and local communities for the purposes of furthering the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by means other than top-down federal regulations.
On January 10, 2015, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs received HUD’s final AFFH rule and this overreaching new directive will likely be implemented in the very near future. Communities that reject this overreach will lose out on millions of dollars annually. The damage to local communities that will result from the AFFH rule is well documented and further evidenced in publications about the regulation including the PAHRA Monitor , Investor’s Business Daily and the New York Daily.
In the 113th Congress, the House of Representatives successfully approved Congressman Gosar’s amendment prohibiting HUD from implementing its proposed Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. The amendment was successfully attached to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2015 but was not included the final version signed into law. This amendment was supported by Heritage and Americans for Limited Government. Click HERE to read more about this effort.
Congressman Gosar wrote and op-ed for Investor’s Business Daily titled Latest Federal Mandate On 'Fair Housing' Is Anything But, which can be read HERE.
Cosponsors of H.R. 1995 that support the Gosar legislation include: Reps. Brian Babin, Marsha Blackburn, Jim Bridenstine, Rick Crawford, Scott DesJarlais, John Duncan (TN), Stephen Fincher, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Glenn Grothman, Doug LaMalfa, Cynthia Lummis, Tom Massie, Tom McClintock, Ted Poe, Pete Sessions, Randy Weber, Lynn Westmoreland, Ted Yoho.
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