MHARR has taken a further step in its effort to slow and reverse intensifying pressure by HUD and its monitoring and inspection agents for manufacturers — under the guise of “voluntary” cooperation — to adopt costly changes to their in-plant production oversight procedures that are not required by existing HUD regulations. The focus of this MHARR activity, as you are aware, is on ensuring that, unless and until there is proper rulemaking, any such changes are initiated — if at all — on a truly voluntary basis by individual manufacturers and not by regulatory authorities. This is because any “request” by regulators within a comprehensive regulatory system for “voluntary” action above and beyond existing regulations, without a specific document that has gone through the rigors of rulemaking, is accurately perceived as pressure and coercion by the regulated party.

As reported earlier, MHARR, on October 26, 2009, filed a wide-ranging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with HUD seeking the disclosure of an array of documents relating to the genesis of this coercion. Among other things, the filing asks for materials dating back to 2008 showing the substance of closed-door meetings on this subject involving HUD regulators, the program monitoring contractor and third-party Primary Inspection Agencies (PIAs). It also seeks any and all documents used at — or resulting from those meetings — as well as materials showing the identity and role of specific participants.