Stanley Kurtz reports that Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) "is planning to offer" an amendment to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill that would declaw the Obama Administration's proposed "AFFH" rule.
Kurtz explains the proposed rule for Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) while attacking it: "this rule uses the language of fighting discrimination to re-engineer Americans’ housing choices. AFFH forces every municipality receiving federal aid to conduct a survey of its neighborhoods by race, ethnicity and income. If the mixture is not to the federal government’s liking, changes would have to be made on pain of losing federal funding. This would effectively strip local governments of their zoning powers."
Kurtz is mainly interested in citing the proposed AFFH rule as an example of a systematic campaign by the Obama Administration against the suburban way of life: "Furthermore, by redefining 'fair housing' to mean housing near transportation hubs and dense downtown districts where many jobs are available, AFFH can be used to change the way Americans live, urbanizing suburbs and Manhattanizing cities."
For another take on AFFH, reference a post by the National Low Income Housing Coalition published in July 2013, when the proposed rule was published for comment.
Rep. Gosar's amendment, which Kurtz says has a chance to pass the House but will face a more difficult test in the Senate, "would bar the use of funding to implement, administer, or enforce the Obama administration’s proposed rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH)."
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