Gosar amendment to defund HUD racial zoning rule in appropriations vote

June 6, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in favor of an amendment to the Transportation and HUD appropriations bill Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) plans to offer defunding implementation of the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule, which in October will empower the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to condition eligibility for community development block grants on redrawing zoning maps to achieve racial and income integration:

“We call on every member of the House to support Rep. Gosar’s amendment to defund HUD’s scheme to redraw zoning maps in any locality that accepts any part of the $3.5 billion a year in community development block grants from the federal government. The utopian goal of creating evenly distributed neighborhoods based on racial composition and income is bad policy, and it is unconstitutional.

“HUD has no place in local zoning decisions. Under federalism, that is left up to states, counties and municipalities to determine for themselves. At a time when the Supreme Court is roundly rejecting racial quotas as unconstitutional, there is no place for wasting taxpayer dollars on social engineering that will never withstand judicial scrutiny.

“Housing discrimination based on race has been illegal since the 1960s, and people should be allowed to choose for themselves where they live without D.C. bureaucrats nationalizing zoning decisions for political reasons.

“Rep. Gosar deserves the thanks of all Americans for his courage in taking on this backdoor attempt to federalize our most basic living decisions. Americans for Limited Government strongly supports the Gosar amendment to defund racial quotas in local zoning decisions.”

Attachments:

“Racial quotas for local zoning decisions?” By Robert Romano, June 6, 2014 at http://netrightdaily.com/2014/06/racial-quotas-local-zoning-decisions/

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (202)744-4427 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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