During consideration of the THUD (Transportation, Housing and Urban Development)-VA appropriations bill (H.R. 2577), Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds to carry out the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule and notice of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to Tom DeWeese, a nationally known property rights activist, “AFFH requires communities that apply for HUD grants to strip search every neighborhood, detailing income level, religion, race, and national origin of every single person living there. HUD has created specific guidelines dictating specific numbers of each for a proper ‘balance.’ If there are any shortages in any of the categories, then the neighborhood is deemed to be ‘out of balance.’ HUD then requires that the community correct the situation…. The result is social engineering that is leading to the destruction of property values and property rights of neighborhoods.”
The Senate agreed to a motion to table (kill) Lee’s amendment on May 19, 2016 by a vote of 60 to 37 (Roll Call 81). We have assigned pluses to the nays because there is no authorization in the Constitution for Congress to establish and fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first place, let alone fund the radical AFFH rule that imposes unconstitutional federal controls on local zoning and planning authorities.
