[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 589 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 589

         To amend the Fair Housing Act, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 5, 1997

Mr. Bilbray (for himself, Ms. Harman, Mr. Horn, Mr. White, Mr. Calvert, 
 Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Packard, Mr. Baker, Mr. Hayworth, Mr. Hunter, Mr. 
Lewis of California, Mr. King, and Mr. Dreier) introduced the following 
       bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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                                 A BILL


 
         To amend the Fair Housing Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Housing Reform and Freedom of 
Speech Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO FAIR HOUSING ACT.

    (a) In General.--The first sentence of section 807(b)(1) of the 
Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3607(b)(1)) is amended by inserting before 
the period the following: ``, including any restriction relating to the 
maximum number of unrelated persons permitted to occupy a dwelling, or 
governing the proximity of dwellings to each other, in connection with 
the occupancy of a dwelling by a convicted felon, sex offender, or 
recovering drug addict, if the purpose of the restriction is to 
restrict land use to single family dwellings''.
    (b) Protection of Certain Activities.--Title I of the Fair Housing 
Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section:

``SEC. 821. PROTECTION OF CERTAIN ACTIVITIES.

    ``Nothing in this Act shall be construed to apply to any otherwise 
lawful activity engaged in by one or more persons, including the filing 
or maintaining of a legal action, that is engaged in solely for the 
purpose of--
            ``(1) achieving or preventing action by a governmental 
        entity or official; or
            ``(2) receiving an interpretation of any provision of this 
        Act in a court of competent jurisdiction.''.
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