Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, as many of you know, manufactured homes are the only form of nonsubsidized housing that is directly regulated by HUD. Statute dictates that HUD is required to facilitate the availability of affordable manufactured homes to increase homeownership for all Americans.

Recently, the Department has imposed excessive and contradictory regulations on manufactured housing. HUD is impeding on some State functions, reinterpreting regulations to the detriment of longstanding and accepted building practices, and implementing rules that unnecessarily limit consumer choice and increase costs.

As the primary regulator of manufactured housing, HUD should work with the industry, not against it, to ensure regulations are streamlined, cost-effective, and applied fairly and transparently, while also working to keep manufactured housing as an affordable housing alternative for all American families.

In central and eastern Kentucky and many other parts of rural America, manufactured housing offers a very affordable option and a good option for housing for many folks. For the life of me, I do not understand why the Federal agency charged with the responsibility of providing affordable housing would be limiting choices and access to this very affordable and very good option for housing for many rural Americans.

My limitation amendment would fix three problems where HUD's regulation of manufactured housing exceeds and, at times, even contradicts statutes. These three problems are intrusive installation programs, burdensome and unnecessary onsite completion of construction rules, and shifting guidelines on alternative construction.
Mr. Chairman, what I am offering here tonight is an important limitation amendment. Addressing these issues will help mitigate the ongoing negative impact that these regulations are having on access to affordable housing across America.

I urge my colleagues to support this important work where Congress can work together to eliminate impediments to the manufactured housing market so that all Americans can have access to affordable housing.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's arguments in opposition. However, I would argue that the best consumer protection is competition and choice, and what these misguided regulations do is take away access, take away competition, take away choices for consumers.

That is not consumer protection. It is certainly not consumer protection to say to rural Americans looking for access to affordable housing: You can't have access to a manufactured home.
That is not consumer protection. That is hurting consumers.

And what I would say also is that this is a bipartisan amendment.

There are Members of the party on the other side of the aisle who recognize that in rural America and other places, we need a bipartisan fix to bureaucratic overreach, and these are new requirements that are not thoughtfully conceived, as the gentleman would argue.

In fact, these are new requirements imposed without warning, without any evidence of consumer harm, without any thoughtful process at the agency.

So, again, I would urge my colleagues to join us in a bipartisan amendment to fix a bureaucratic overreach, which denies low-income Americans with access to affordable housing.

Why in the world would we tolerate the agency that is supposed to be the advocates of poor and low-income Americans denying them access to affordable housing?

Support this bipartisan amendment, support low-income Americans, support rural Americans, and support manufactured housing.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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