Washington, D.C., – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) tells MHProNews that regulatory orders issued by the new Administration of President Donald J. Trump should have a direct impact on manufactured homes regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), but face defiance, particularly at HUD, from entrenched regulators and revenue-driven contractors.

Soon after the November 8, 2016 national election, MHARR became the first and only national manufactured housing industry organization to publicly call for the deferral of any action on three pending regulations affecting manufactured housing. The regulations were based on a November 15, 2016 memorandum sent by the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives to all Executive Branch federal agencies, warning any agency against “finalizing pending rules or regulations in the [Obama] Administration’s last days.”

MHARR called on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to defer action on a HUD “Interpretive Bulletin” (IB) regarding manufactured home foundations and DOE manufactured housing energy standards that would needlessly and discriminatorily exclude millions from the manufactured housing market. It also included any final FHFA “Duty to Serve Underserved Markets” (DTS) implementation rule that did not include the full securitization and secondary market support of manufactured housing personal property chattel loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

While the DOE has taken no further action on its manufactured housing energy rule, both the FHFA and HUD have taken defiant positions against a regulatory moratorium on these manufactured housing issues.

The Trump Administration put a regulatory freeze on all federal regulations on January 20th. 

“The Trump Administration has made it absolutely clear that one of its key priorities will be to reduce baseless regulatory burdens on American businesses that needlessly increase the cost of American products and undermine job creation,” said MHARR President and CEO M. Mark Weiss.

“This new perspective offers the industry and consumers the long-overdue opportunity that they have needed to demand new leadership at HUD, in full compliance with the 2000 reform law, and complete consumer financing parity at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Hopefully all segments of the industry will recognize this and join forces to pursue this sorely-needed relief.”

The full MHARR statement is available for Daily Business News readers here. ##

(Image credits are as shown above.)

Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.