OPENING STATEMENT OF

CHAIRMAN CHARLES T. CANADY

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

HEARING ON H.R. 2437, THE JUSTICE IN FAIR HOUSING

ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 1999

October 28, 1999

The Subcommittee will come to order. We convene today to conduct a hearing on H.R. 2437, the "Justice in Fair Housing Enforcement Act of 1999."

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 expanded fair housing anti-discrimination protections to the disabled and imposed minimum standards for the design of certain apartment housing. Passage of the Act marked the first time a civil rights law had ever been used to adopt a federal building code.

When Congress passed the Act in 1988, however, little attention was devoted to how the accessibility requirements would be implemented. The Act stated that while HUD could encourage states and local governments to review building plans for compliance with the accessibility requirements, HUD could not require such review. Therefore, states and local governments have no formal role under the Act in interpreting or enforcing the federal accessibility requirements.

Traditionally, it has been the industry practice for architects and builders to rely on local building code authorities for assurances of legal compliance. Many local jurisdictions had some accessibility requirements for housing prior to 1988, so many builders assumed that if they received a local building permit, the building was in compliance with accessibility requirements. However, since the federal accessibility requirements generally go beyond local accessibility codes, buildings that meet local requirements do not necessarily meet federal requirements. To this day, architects and builders cannot rely on local building code agencies to inform them of what accessibility designs are required under federal law and there is no place for builders, architects or others to go to get building plans approved for compliance with federal law.

Whereas the federal government has made efforts to educate the building community at the local level when implementing federal standards affecting local builders in other areas, such as EPA's implementation of water drainage standards under the Clean Water Act, no such coordinated program designed to educate builders at the local level accompanied HUD's implementation of these novel federal accessibility design requirements. Indeed, HUD's efforts to educate builders can best be described as minimal.

At the same time, HUD appears to be aggressively pursuing a goal articulated by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to "double" the number of actions brought for housing discrimination, including those for violations of federal accessibility standards.

Congressman Walter Jones has introduced H.R. 2437, the "Justice in Fair Housing Enforcement Act of 1999," which would provide relief from prosecution to those in the building community who may have committed building design violations under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 at a time when HUD failed to ensure that novel federal building code requirements were reflected in local building codes on which builders have traditionally relied and when HUD's own interpretation of those legal requirements was particularly unclear.

H.R. 2437 would exempt from prosecution under the Act only buildings that (1) were designed for first occupancy during the period beginning March 13, 1991 -- the date on which the Act became effective -- and ending on the date of H.R. 2437's enactment; and (2) received a building permit or other similar approval from the relevant State or local building authorities as meeting the requirements of the applicable building code.

We look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today. I want to thank Representative Jones for his leadership in bringing this issue to the Subcommittee's attention.