The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) sent out a message to manufacturers indicating its view that the already diminished role and authority of the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) as an independent check and balance on the power of HUD regulators took another major step backward on January 3, 2011 as HUD, for the first time, has selected the Chairman of the Committee. Until now, the MHCC had elected its own Chairman and Vice Chairman from among its voting members and had forwarded that vote to the Secretary of HUD for final action. The incoming HUD-selected Chairman, an original MHCC member appointed by HUD in 2002 and now serving a ninth year on the Committee, is the only one of seven term-limited MHCC members to be re-appointed for a new term by HUD, without any further explanation.  In the brief, MHARR indicated the association will redouble and intensify its efforts to make this a key issue for engagement with the new Congress about to take office in Washington, D.C.   In the meantime, MHARR says it will continue its efforts as a non-member of the MHCC to fight even harder to preserve the proper role, status and authority of the MHCC in accordance with the 2000 law.  The entire text is available here: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/mhcc-decline-continues/