BILL WOULD NULLIFY OBAMA PLOT TO “DIVERSIFY” YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Legislation has been introduced in Congress to defund and overturn a controversial Obama administration decree
from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to
transform and “diversify” American neighborhoods under the direction of
Big Brother. The new bill would also reverse the attempted
unconstitutional usurpation of power over local zoning decisions by the
federal government and the unelected regional authorities charged with
managing the transformation. And the measure would end a “geospatial
database” mandated under the scheme to track the racial and income
composition of each area, a key element of the scheme to redistribute
people based on their melanin content and earnings.
The Obama administration’s race-obsessed decree, known as the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing”
(AFFH) rule, became a lightning rod for criticism by conservatives and
constitutionalists last year. A coalition of Republican lawmakers,
facing outrage among their constituents, tried to defund the
unconstitutional scheme while Obama was still in office. However, establishment
Republicans quietly worked behind the scenes to betray conservatives by
supporting Obama’s radical power grab and handing even more tax money
to Obama’s HUD. With those establishment lawmakers still in power,
passage of the new bill remains far from assured, even with Trump in the
White House, Ben Carson at HUD, and the GOP in control of both houses
of Congress. But prospects are better than before, analysts say.
The bill to overturn the AFFH decree is known as the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017.”
In the House of Representatives, where it was introduced by
Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), the legislation is known as H.R.
482. In the Senate, the companion bill, S. 103. was introduced by
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Both Representative Gosar and Senator Lee led
the way last year in the unsuccessful attempt to defund and defang the
AFFH scheme. Supporters of the effort, though, hope this year the
chances for success will be better considering the new political
dynamics — at least if the American people continue to speak out.
The description of the six-page bill reads: “To nullify certain
regulations and notices of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and for other purposes.” In particular, the bill targets
Obama’s AFFH scheme, adopted by Obama’s HUD in July of 2015, as well as
any substantially similar regulation that may be published in the
future. Under the legislation, the AFFH “shall have no force or effect.”
The department is also prohibited from using any funds to implement the
scheme, or to build the associated federal database containing
“geospatial information” on the racial and income composition of
American communities.
Senator Lee was bold in slamming the scheme last year, saying it
turns HUD into a “National Zoning Board.” Indeed, the explicit purpose
of AFFH was “to empower federal bureaucrats to dictate where a
community’s low-income residents will live,” he said. Lee also outlined
how the Obama HUD edict would purport to empower D.C. bureaucrats to run
roughshod over local communities and their elected officials. “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,” he explained.
The New American was among the earliest voices to expose the Obama administration’s AFFH scheme. In fact, this magazine warned as far back as 2013
— years before the regulation was formally approved — that Obama was
plotting precisely such a scheme as part of his stated goal of
“fundamentally transforming” America. And if it goes forward, the AFFH
would indeed fundamentally transform America, down to the most minute
local decisions. And of course, by redistributing people across America
using federal funds, and hijacking control over local zoning decisions,
the Obama scheme would also fundamentally transform politics by diluting
the conservative vote in communities across the country. Similar schemes are being pushed at the global level by the United Nations.
Under the expansive regulations, cities and towns that accept federal
money from the HUD would be required to submit to vast federal controls
over their policy decisions. For instance, if a community receives an
HUD grant, the AFFH purports to mandate costly demographic analyses at
the local and regional level to determine whether there are enough
low-income and minority residents living in each neighborhood, as
defined by HUD bureaucrats. The giant database would include records on
residents including income, race, color, religion, national origin, and
much more.
If the HUD determines that not enough welfare recipients live in your
neighborhood, for instance, the bureaucracy would declare your
community to be “out of balance” and not in compliance with the AFFH. In
response, the massive bureaucracy would use taxpayer funds — or
borrowed money, considering the $20 trillion and counting in national
debt — to file lawsuits against the community and impose its will. That
might take the form of building more government-subsidized low-income
housing in your neighborhood to attract enough welfare recipients to put
your community back in balance. In short, it is social engineering by
the federal government on a massive scale.
In fact, HUD has been involved in such scheming for years, with
targeted communities going up against the might of Uncle Sam. In
Westchester County, New York, for example, the Obama administration went
to war with the community and its elected officials because they did
not have enough low-income, high-density housing developments to satisfy
federal bureaucrats. When local officials and residents fought back,
the administration sued them, and even went so far as to seek a gag
order against the county executive who was leading the fight against
Obama’s AFFH.
In an e-mail to members and supporters, the constitutionalist John
Birch Society, which publishes this magazine, warned that the Obama
scheme was an attack on fundamental American values. “AFFH is dangerous
to American property owners and to local government in our communities,”
the organization warned last week, calling the scheme “Barack Obama’s
most radical assault on American private property rights and locally
elected governments.” Among other concerns, the JBS, which has chapters
active in all 50 states, warned that the AFFH “obliterates personal
property rights and destroys property values in whole neighborhoods.”
The Obama scheme also destroys cherished American traditions of local
governance. “As HUD demands that the ‘imbalance’ be corrected by
forcing federally subsidized housing into more affluent neighborhoods,
property values plummet. Equity in those homes will be lost,” explained
Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center. “In addition, as
HUD moves to enforce these badly defined rules, its agents begin to
dictate to local officials how their communities will develop. Locally
elected officials simply become pawns to carry out HUD rules. Home rule
in America will die under AFFH.”
The Left and Big Government forces, he said, are gearing up to claim
that the bill to nullify AFFH is somehow “damaging” to the poor. But in
reality, the AFFH itself is damaging to the poor and everyone else
except government cronies — not to mention freedom, the Constitution,
and key individual rights. “So AFFH is a threefold threat,” DeWeese
concluded. “It destroys property rights and values. It usurps local
government control. And it steals homes and dreams from the poor.” As
such, property-rights advocates and constitutionalists are urging all
Americans to get involved in the fight.
“There is great optimism by the sponsors of the bills that they will
pass and that President Trump will sign them into law,” DeWeese noted.
“However, there is growing pressure from civil rights groups,
developers, and their lobbyists who fully understand the dangers these
bills represent to their big government agenda. It is vital that those
of us opposed to AFFH and HUD over reach keep up our own pressure by
calling our Representatives and Senators to demand they support HR 482
and S.103.” The only caveat he mentioned was that the bills contain
language forcing HUD to talk with “regional councils,” language he said
he is hoping to have removed.
Cosponsors of the legislation in the House include Brian Babin
(R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rod Blum (R-Iowa), Ken Buck
(R-Colo.), Michael Burgess (R-Texas), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Jeff
Duncan (R-S.C.), John Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.),
Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Tom
McClintock (R-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.),
Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.),
Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), Dave Brat (R-Va.), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Andy Biggs
(R-Ariz.), Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), and Lamar Smith (R-Texas). In the
Senate, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is also a cosponsor.
Beyond simply nullifying the Obama administration’s illegal rule,
Congress should also work to abolish the entire agency. There is no
authority contained in the Constitution for federal involvement in
either housing or urban development. As such, there is no need for, or
authority for, a federal department dealing with those issues. If the
electorate feels that government must be involved in housing or urban
development — a dubious notion, at best — then the proper sphere of
government for that is the state or local level, constitutionally
speaking.
But progress limiting government to its constitutional confines at
federal level may take a long time. So in the meantime, Americans should
also continue to work at the local level to prevent federal meddling in
their communities, while educating the electorate on constitutional
governance. A good place to start is working to end the unconstitutional
flow of federal tax dollars — and the strings they come attached with —
to state and local governments. The feds were never meant to control
local government or zoning decisions. It is time for that to stop.
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