Part - 4

This well crafted but obvious rendition shifted away from the original purpose to protect the public over to the promotion and facilitation of availability, (i.e. preferential treatment by the government), to the point that it can be argued that the Act and legislation no longer belong under Title 42, "Health and Welfare". In fact, the amendment has actually undermined the basis for National Preemption due to the loss of the public exigency purpose.

The purpose of the original "Manufactured Housing Act" was simple.

The next part of the discussion of the amended legislation is shown below in a typical legislative format. The Congressional finding is incorporated into this part of the discussion.

All words appearing in italics are direct quotes or cites from some source, which includes the amendment to the Manufactured Housing Act.

The Congressional finding is a statement of the necessary and ultimate facts that support the purpose(s) of the Act.

The Congressional finding states:

It is as important to notice what Congress is not saying as it is what they are saying. Congress does not say that manufactured housing plays a vital role in meeting the Nations "affordable" housing needs. To have done so could limit HUD's promotion of this industry's product to those who are typically the intended beneficiaries of affordable housing. Most importantly though is that Congress does not say that manufactured housing plays an equally indispensable part [vital role] in meeting the housing needs of the Nation; Congress said only manufactured housing is indispensable in meeting the housing needs of the nation. Nowhere can it be found where Congress has given special status to any other type housing by calling them "vital" to the Nation. This elevates manufactured housings' importance above that of other types of housing within the government.

Rental Homes - Congress is not saying that manufactured housing provides a source for lower rental rates. Rental rates are determined by supply and demand; therefore, the cost of renting a home has little, if anything to do with how much this product cost the purchaser. This is primarily for opening the door for HUD to make available federal housing dollars to developers for developing manufactured home rental communities where some portion of the manufactured home community will be available for section 8 rental housing, which in no way implies cheap rent.

"Affordability" means to bear the cost of without serious inconvenience. "Affordability" within this legislation is consistently tied to "ALL" Americans. It is impossible to quantify what costs represent a serious inconvenience to someone earning more than 50 thousand dollars a year with what cost represent a serious inconvenience to someone earning less than 50 thousand dollars per year. For this reason, it is impossible determine what costs represent a serious inconvenience to "ALL" Americans. Given the unreasonableness of making such a determination, the only logical application for  "affordability" by the government is to apply it to the initial cost of producing this product under the presumption (fantasy) that by making this product cheaper to produce that the manufacturers will pass the savings to the consumer, thereby making it easier for all Americans to buy a manufactured home.

Keep in mind that those in Congress responsible for the introduction and passage of this legislation refused to define that "affordability" applied to the purchaser. As far as the downside of producing a product built to standards that are not primarily promulgated for assuring safety, durability, and quality, the government intends to offset this on behalf of the industry by promoting that the newly adopted "cost effective standards" do not result in a reduction in the safety, quality, and durability of this product. The requirements to carry out testing to prove the legitimacy of such claims were eliminated by Congress's amendment to the Act (There is little, if any legitimacy to the testing that is currently being carried out by HUD and the industry).

The purpose:

It was also stated in the last part that that the supposed provisions for enumerated purpose (2) could be more accurately described as the purpose for this part of the legislation than statutes for carrying out this purpose. To make this easier to see, the related provisions and the enumerated purpose have been placed together, and part of the provision has been put in bold type.

Enumerated purpose (2);

Everything in (4) and (5) not in bold type can be inserted in place of "facilitate". When this is done, it reads:

The reason for promoting a product is to make it more appealing to the buyer and therefore, more popular than similar products offered by competitors. In this case, the manufactured housing producers are not competing against each other for greater popularity. Since the objective of promotion is not intra industry competition, this makes the competition all housing that is not manufactured housing. The government will publicize and advertise manufactured housing with the objective of elevating the popularity of manufactured housing above all other types of housing. This is consistent with the Congressional finding where it is said that manufactured housing is more important than other types of housing in meeting the housing needs of the Nation.

"Facilitate" as it is used in enumerated purpose (2) is a diversion from the full motivation for enumerated purpose (2), which was hidden within a seemingly unrelated section of the Act. This made the discovery of the motivation for enumerated purpose (2) less likely.

It was not necessary in this case to specify who would be responsible for carrying out this part. This supposed provision is hidden within a section of the "Manufactured Housing Act" that already specified who was responsible for carrying out the section. This supposed provision is very obviously a part of enumerated purpose (2), thereby making it known that the Secretary of Housing is responsible for carrying out this enumerated purpose and these supposed provisions.

Note: The term "Chapter" means the same as the Manufactured Housing Construction and xxxxxx Standards Act. (Title 42, USC, Chapter 70, The Manufactured Home Construction and xxxxxx Standards Act)

What kind of research, testing, development and training is the Secretary of Housing required to carry out?

Congress said in its purpose for the original 1974 Manufactured Housing Act,

The research, testing, development, and training would have been that which would be consistent with "reducing the number of personal injuries and deaths and the amount of insurance costs and property damage resulting from manufactured home accidents and improve the quality and durability of manufactured homes".

Whatever subparagraphs within this section that seem to still support this objective are ambiguous at best, since they are no longer consistent with the purposes for this Act. However, the subsections added by this amendment are consistent with enumerated purposes (1) and (2) for this Act. All of the purposes are listed together to make this easier to see.

Nowhere within the purpose of the Act does it state that the intent of this legislation is to reduce the number of personal injuries and deaths and the amount of insurance costs and property damage resulting from manufactured home accidents and improve the quality and durability of manufactured homes. Any provisions that appear unchanged in this section by the amendment are no longer consistent with the purpose for this chapter, and therefore, they are meaningless within this legislation.

While enumerated purposes (4), (5), and (7) do not sound bad, as you will see when enumerated purposes (3) through (8) are discussed, these have been written to create the appearance that they are for the benefit of the consumers, when in reality they are of little, if any value to the consumers of this product.