Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) released the following statement Thursday after introducing the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act,” a bill which denies all federal funding for implementing the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Final Rule.” “Every American should be free to choose where to live, and every community should be free to zone its neighborhoods and compete for new residents according to its distinct values,” Lee said. “We don’t need a National Zoning Board. Washington should let Americans ‘govern local.’” “A better debate would be about how Americans could better spend the money that is wasted every year by the dysfunctional Community Development Block Grant Program,” Lee added. A study by the Reason Foundation found examples showing how this program contributes to cronyism by channeling taxpayer dollars to politically connected groups while doing absolutely nothing to combat poverty or housing segregation. The Local Zoning Decisions Act would restrict any federal funding from being used to implement, administer, or enforce HUD’s housing rule. The bill also prohibits any funds from being used for HUD’s “Fair Housing” database which could be used to further the administration’s radical pursuit of using “disparate impact theory” to punish communities that are not as demographically diverse as the administration would like. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has introduced a companion bill in the House.

“This arrogant act by a lame duck president will not stand. I will work tirelessly with Congress and the incoming Trump administration to honor the will of the people of Utah and undo this designation.”

WASHINGTON - Today, Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Department of Justice Antitrust Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse calling for “careful consideration” of three recent proposed agribusiness mergers.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Thursday in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his nominee for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator: