July 23, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising HUD Secretary Ben Carson and President Donald Trump for ending the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation and protecting local zoning with a new rule that states “It must be local governments, not HUD, that exercise control of administering local housing policies, including zoning and development policies that are unique to a particular community”:
“Secretary Ben Carson and President Donald Trump have rightly chosen to terminate an Obama era rule that federalized local zoning under the guise of fair housing along income and racial guidelines. This important decision will take federal bureaucrats out of the zoning process as Congress clearly intended when they defunded the zoning portion of the Obama rule in the 2017 omnibus, the 2018 omnibus, the 2019 omnibus, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020.
“Americans for Limited Government has always urged aggressive enforcement against individual cases of proven racial housing discrimination. However, the Obama administration Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation created an unfair presumption of discrimination based on zoning without any proof beyond Census maps. This was an absurd expansion of federal power and put the most important local government decisions in the hands of those with no stake in the outcome.
“Secretary Ben Carson today has ended one of the primary tools that former Vice President Joe Biden was looking to use in his war to abolish the suburbs. Every American owes Secretary Carson and President Trump a great big thank you for standing up both against discrimination and for our local ability to govern our communities.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 ext. 1 or at media@limitgov.org.
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