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`Defunding HUD's Affirmatively Furthering Fair 1 -lousing Rule - Speeches - United States... Page 2 of 5 The original intent of the Fair Housing Act was to protect the God-given right of individuals and families - no matter their skin color or ethnicity - to buy and rent homes where they please. By contrast, the explicit purpose of HUD's new rule is to empower federal bureaucrats to dictate where a community's low-income residents will live. This is not what "progress" looks like, Mr. President. AFFH not only grants unprecedented new powers to HUD that were not contemplated by- and have no legitimate basis in - the Fair Housing Act of 1988, but it will ultimately hurt the very people it purports to help: public -housing residents - especially African-American public -housing residents - who too often find themselves trapped in dysfunctional, broken neighborhoods. To make matters worse, this new rule will end America's unique - and unique`y successful - commitment to localism and diversity, and presidents. ake neighborhood level construction decisions subject to the whims of future If this past year has not yet done enough to give you pause about handing over such power to the Executive Branch, you're not paying close enough attention So i'rn offering an amendment today -- number 3897 - that would prohibit HUD from using any federal taxpayer money to carry out the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. The House of Representatives has already passed this amendment - twice - and will likely to do so again in the near future. We should follow the House's lead. Here's how the rule works. AFFH requires cities and towns across the country to audit their local housing poi cies, under close supervision by HUD regulators, who may have never have lived anywhere near there. If any aspect of -a community's housing and demographic patterns fails to meet HUD bureaucrats' expansive definition of "fair housing," the local government must submit a plan to reorganize the community's housing practices according to the preferences and priorities of the bureaucrats. Critics of AFFH often say - as I have said - that this rule turns HUD into a National Zoning Board with the power to unilaterally rewrite local zoning laws and land -use regulations in every city and town in America. But that's not quite how the rule works, and it's why Senator Collins' amendment would not do anything -to prevent the implementation of AFFH. In the 10 months since the rule was finalized, it has become clear that the mechanics of AFFH are much more underhanded and subversive than critics have often cia me(' /`/1-/9 ht.tn:/hvwtiv_iee.senate vov/nuhlic/index.cfrn/sneeches?ii)=21)1696413-A1)71)-41 RO-X54D-.. 12/11/2016