January 19, 2018 12:44PM # Senator Lee’s Bill Would Eliminate Controversial HUD Rule By [Vanessa Brown Calder](https://www.cato.org/people/vanessa-calder) --- SHARE Last week I published [an article](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/ben-carsons-hud-clocks-disappointing-first-year) critiquing Secretary Ben Carson’s disappointing first year at the Housing and Urban Development Department. It outlined some of the areas where Carson’s efforts have fallen short. Last year, Senator Mike Lee introduced a [bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/103) addressing one of the issues Carson fell short on — facing an Obama-era rule called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH).[\[1\]](///H:/My%20Documents/Blogs/AFFH/Mike%20Lee's%20Take%20on%20AFFH%20011918.docx#_ftn1) Congressman Paul Gosar later introduced companion [legislation](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/482/text) in the House. Both bills would eliminate the HUD rule if passed. That’s good news for legislative process, since the Obama-era rule that makes HUD an overseer of local demographic information seems to be only [loosely based](https://www.cato.org/blog/fair-housing-or-federal-agency-running-riot) on the 50-year-old Fair Housing Act it claims to interpret. The rule is probably an example of the agency getting creative about ways to expand its mission. In other words, if legislators like the rule they should pass new legislation rather than abdicate legislative authority to HUD. Conversely, if legislators don’t like the rule Congress should pass legislation to nullify it. The latter is precisely what Senator Lee and Congressman Gosar’s bill does — eliminate the controversial rule outright. And despite the bill’s rather unfortunate name, the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act,”[\[2\]](///H:/My%20Documents/Blogs/AFFH/Mike%20Lee's%20Take%20on%20AFFH%20011918.docx#_ftn2) it is encouraging that Congress is taking deliberate legislative action. After all, legislators are supposed to create laws, not agency professionals and not even political appointees. Regardless of how one feels about the HUD rule’s particulars, more legislating in Congress and less in the executive branch is a model everyone should be able to get behind. --- [\[1\]](///H:/My%20Documents/Blogs/AFFH/Mike%20Lee's%20Take%20on%20AFFH%20011918.docx#_ftnref1) The rule makes HUD an overseer of local demographic information, with a special eye towards eradicating demographic segregation. [\[2\]](///H:/My%20Documents/Blogs/AFFH/Mike%20Lee's%20Take%20on%20AFFH%20011918.docx#_ftnref2) Local zoning often erodes property rights and individual liberty and arguably is sometimes not in keeping with the U.S. Constitution’s takings clause. Property rights and individual liberty should be protected. ##### Related Tags [Social Welfare and Poverty](https://www.cato.org/social-welfare-poverty), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).