The Senate on Thursday blocked a measure aimed at stopping an Obama administration regulation tying federal community grants to the demographic makeup of communities around the country in an effort to make them more diverse.
Even though Republicans are a majority in the Senate, the chamber voted 60-37 to set aside an amendment from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to defund Obama’s “The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule.”
Lee said his amendment was needed to prevent the federal government from becoming a national zoning authority by requiring federal grant recipients to adhere to diversity rules. Lee called the rules “equal parts condescension and willful blindness,” from the federal government.
But the Senate rejected Lee’s proposal, and instead the voted 87-9 in favor of an alternative amendment by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would ban the Housing and Urban Development authority from dictating local housing regulations.
Collins amendment was added to the fiscal 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding legislation.
“This amendment prohibits HUD from intervening in local zoning matters,” Collins said. “This is an important clarification that should take away any fear that there is any possibility of using HUD funds authorized by this bill to intervene in local zoning decisions.”
Lee and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said the Collins measure does not stop HUD from implicitly requiring local housing rules to follow federal guidelines on diversity in exchange for federal grants.
“HUD does not intend to direct any special zoning requirements,” Shelby said. “It does, however, intend to significantly influence local zoning decisions by withholding approval of local plans until they meet HUD’s central goals.”
Lee and Collins’ disagreement over the issue led to a tense moment Wednesday during the Steering Committee lunch, which the Utah senator hosts. Collins distributed a flyer from the Paralyzed Veterans of America urging lawmakers to “vote ‘no’ on Senator Lee’s anti-civil rights amendment!” Lee confronted Collins about the memo, according to two sources familiar with the exchange, asking if she meant to suggest he is a racist.
“She didn’t engage, which was smart,” a GOP senator who attended the lunch told the Washington Examiner. “She didn’t even try to make the obvious point which is, ‘I didn’t write this.'”
The fellow senator suggested that the exchange might have backfired on Lee in the moment, before adding that the fight wouldn’t have any “lasting impact” on their relationship or stature in the conference. “He was just offended by what this group said and Susan responded appropriately by not really engaging,” the senator said. “She talked about the substance of it, but she didn’t… she was polite.”
Conservatives have criticized Obama’s housing rule since its introduction in July. It’s aimed at bringing more diversity to communities and reducing the isolation that characterizes poorer, minority neighborhoods.
“HUD’s rule clarifies and simplifies existing fair housing obligations for HUD grantees to analyze their fair housing landscape and set locally-determined fair housing priorities and goals through an Assessment of Fair Housing,” the agency announced.
