Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Gosar (R-AZ) joined a letter with twelve Senate and six House colleagues in asking Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to rescind the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Final Rule in an effort to empower local communities to tackle their own unique zoning challenges.
The letter reads, in part:
“We stand with you in opposing any and all instances of discrimination, but this rule does not actually help in that effort. Instead, it would extend reach of the federal government beyond its authority and could take away state and local governments’ ability to make local zoning decisions.”
The letter continues, “Moving forward, we respectfully ask that you use your authority to rescind the AFFH rule in its entirety. It is critical that we pursue real, sensible reforms to reduce poverty and improve the opportunities available to lower-income citizens at the local level. We look forward to partnering with you to ensure justice and opportunity are preserved in every neighborhood across our great land.”
Sen. Lee and Rep. Gosar are joined on the letter by Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), M. Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Enzi (R-WY), James Lankford (R-OK), Rand Paul (R-KY), James Risch (R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Thune (R-SD) and Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rod Blum (R-IA), Ken Buck (R-CO), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), and Tom Massie (R-KY).
Full text of the letter can be found here.
