Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has reintroduced legislation aimed at repealing the Obama-Biden Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rules, saying, "Overreaching housing regulations first imposed by Barack Obama and re-upped by Joe Biden have extorted communities into giving up control of local zoning decisions while driving up the cost of affordable housing."
Rep. Gosar explained that AFFH was based on the 1968 Fair Housing Act, prohibiting housing discrimination.
However, President Barack Obama's 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules imposed unwieldy regulations on local zoning decisions by expanding the certification process, including a grading tool with 92 questions, requiring lengthy and complex regional, jurisdictional, and impediment analyses.
As a result, President Donald Trump repealed the rule in 2020 during his first term, citing it as "complicated, costly, and ineffective."
"After reviewing thousands of comments on the proposed changes to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation, we found it to be unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with, too often resulting in funds being steered away from communities that need them most," said then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Dr. Ben Carson.
However, President Biden restored the AFFH rules in 2021.
Rep. Gosar echoed Dr. Carson's comments in his press release, saying, "Overreaching housing regulations first imposed by Barack Obama and re-upped by Joe Biden have extorted communities into giving up control of local zoning decisions while driving up the cost of affordable housing."
The Arizona Congressman further said his bill intends to put the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner's suspension of the AFFH rule into law, adding, "By rejecting this intrusive Washington, D.C. mandate, my legislation codifies into law the recent decision by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to repeal the onerous Obama-Biden rules that have punished neighborhoods for refusing to fall in line with big government's takeover of our communities."
"Housing decisions are best made at the local level, not by some woke bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. that couldn't find Lake Havasu City, Arizona, on a map if they tried," Gosar mockingly concluded.
