119 S1621 IS: Restoring Fair Housing Protections Eliminated by Trump Act of 2025
U.S. Senate
2025-05-06
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
II
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1621
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 6, 2025
Ms. Warren introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To restore the fair housing mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and for other purposes.
1.

Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Restoring Fair Housing Protections Eliminated by Trump Act of 2025”.
2.

Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1)
The current Administration has taken several steps that seriously undermine fair housing protections for people in the United States.
(2)
On February 10, 2025, the Secretary announced that he would halt all current and future enforcement of the Equal Access Rule of the Department that protects persons who are experiencing homelessness from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity while residing in shelters and while receiving homeless services.
(3)
On February 11, 2025, the Secretary stated in an interview regarding the halting of Equal Access Rule enforcement that, “We want to uphold, first, what the bible says—that there’s male and female” and also stated that Department and the Office of Management and Budget “are going after AFFH”.
(4)
On February 12, 2025, the Secretary submitted an interim final rule about affirmatively furthering fair housing to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
(5)
On February 12, 2025, the Secretary submitted a proposed Equal Access Rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
(6)
On February 14, 2025, Bloomberg Law reported that the Trump Administration plans to eliminate 50 percent of the staff at the Department.
(7)
On February 26, 2025, ProPublica reported that the United States DOGE Service (commonly referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency” or “DOGE”) was given access to confidential fair housing discrimination complaints.
(8)
On February 26, 2025, the Secretary announced the rescission of the rule to affirmatively further fair housing and announced the Department will now rely on localities to self-certify that they comply with the law, even if the locality has not shown to the Department that it has affirmatively furthered fair housing, through an interim final rule issued on March 3, 2025, entitled “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions”.
(9)
On February 25, 2025, the Secretary, at the direction of the United States DOGE Service (commonly referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency” or “DOGE”), canceled 78 Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants that private nonprofit fair housing organizations use to investigate and root out illegal housing discrimination.
(10)
On March 13, 2025, Fair Housing Initiatives Program grantees filed a class action lawsuit in a United States District Court.
(11)
On March 25, 2025, the United States District Court in the District of Massachusetts granted a temporary restraining order directing the Secretary to reinstate the 78 Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants.
3.

Definitions
In this Act:
(1)

Artificial intelligence
The term artificial intelligence has the meaning given the term in section 238(g) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (10 U.S.C. 2358 note).
(2)

Covered housing
The term covered housing—
(A)
with respect to a complaint alleging a violation of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), means—
(i)
housing assisted under the program for supportive housing for the elderly under section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959 (12 U.S.C. 1701q), including the direct loans program under such section 202 as in effect before the date of enactment of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 12701 et seq.);
(ii)
housing assisted under the program for supportive housing for persons with disabilities under section 811 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 8013);
(iii)
housing assisted under the program for housing opportunities for people with AIDS/HIV under subtitle D of title VIII of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12901 et seq.);
(iv)
housing assisted under any of the programs under subtitles B through D of title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371 et seq.);
(v)
housing assisted under the HOME Investment Partnerships program under subtitle A of title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12741 et seq.);
(vi)
housing assisted under the rent supplement program under section 101 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 (12 U.S.C. 1701s);
(vii)
housing financed by a loan or mortgage that is insured under section 203 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1709);
(viii)
housing financed by a loan or mortgage that is—
(I)
secured by a first or subordinate lien on a residential real property, including any such secured loan, the proceeds of which are used to prepay or pay off an existing loan secured by the same property; and
(II)
purchased or securitized by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation or the Federal National Mortgage Association;
(ix)
housing insured, assisted, or held by the Secretary or a State or State agency under the multifamily rental assistance program under section 236 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1715z–1);
(x)
public housing assisted under title I of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437 et seq.);
(xi)
a dwelling unit assisted under the Housing Choice Voucher program for rental assistance under section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o));
(xii)
housing assisted with project-based rental assistance provided under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f);
(xiii)
housing assisted with funds from the Housing Trust Fund as established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568);
(xiv)
housing assisted under any of the rural housing assistance programs under section 514, 515, 516, 533, 538, or 542 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1484, 1485, 1486, 1490m, 1490p–2, 1490r);
(xv)
any housing project for which equity is provided through any low-income housing tax credit pursuant to section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
(xvi)
housing assisted under the Comprehensive Service Programs for Homeless Veterans program under subchapter II of chapter 20 of title 38, United States Code;
(xvii)
housing and facilities assisted under the grant program for homeless veterans with special needs under section 2061 of title 38, United States Code;
(xviii)
permanent housing for which assistance is provided under the program for financial assistance for supportive services for very low-income veteran families in permanent housing under section 2044 of title 38, United States Code;
(xix)
any other housing assisted by any housing program administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs;
(xx)
housing assisted by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund established under the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.);
(xxi)
housing assisted under the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act (42 U.S.C. 8101 et seq.);
(xxii)
housing assisted under title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.), including housing assisted with amounts provided during a disaster as described in such Act;
(xxiii)
transitional or short-term housing assisted under the grant program under section 40299 of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12351);
(xxiv)
housing assisted under such other Federal housing programs as identified for the purposes of section 7 of this Act; and
(xxv)
Federally subsidized dwelling units that provide affordable housing to low-income persons by means of restricted rents or rental assistance, as identified for the purposes of section 7 of this Act; and
(B)
with respect to a complaint alleging a violation of the Violence Against Women Act (34 U.S.C. 12291 et seq.), means a covered housing program, as defined in section 41411 of such Act (34 U.S.C. 12491).
(3)

Department
The term Department means the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
(4)

Secretary
The term Secretary means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
4.

Mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Section 2 of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3531) is amended—
(1)
in the section heading, by inserting “; mission of department” after “purpose”;
(2)
by inserting “(a) Purpose.—” after “Sec. 2.”; and
(3)
by adding at the end the following:
“(b)

Mission of Department
The mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development shall be to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. The Department of Housing and Urban Development shall work to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers, meet the need for quality affordable rental homes, utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life, build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination, and transform the way the Department does business.”.
5.

Implementation of affirmatively furthering fair housing regulation
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall carry out the following:
(1)
Repeal the interim final rule issued on March 3, 2025, entitled “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Revisions”.
(2)
Issue a rule that defines “affirmatively furthering fair housing” in the following manner:
(A)
“Affirmatively furthering fair housing” means—
(i)
taking meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics; and
(ii)
in particular, taking meaningful actions that, taken together, address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws.
(B)
The duty to affirmatively further fair housing extends to all of a program participant’s activities and programs relating to housing and urban development.
6.

Review of online complaints of violations of Fair Housing Act
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report that includes—
(1)
a review of the complaints filed with the Secretary under section 810 of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3610) during the 5-year period preceding the date of enactment of this Act that alleged a discriminatory housing practice involving a digital platform or artificial intelligence, including any artificial intelligence used for—
(A)
advertisement delivery and targeting;
(B)
tenant screening;
(C)
automated mortgage underwriting;
(D)
dynamic pricing of real estate; and
(E)
real estate listings; and
(2)
an analysis of trends and risks related to—
(A)
discrimination that occurs in connection with the use of digital platforms to rent or purchase housing;
(B)
the sufficiency of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) to remedy discrimination during the rental or purchase of housing through digital platforms; and
(C)
steps the Secretary plans to take to address that discrimination.
7.

Publicly available database for fair housing complaints
The Secretary shall develop, and update on a quarterly basis, a database that is publicly available on a website of the Department that includes, subject to applicable confidentiality constraints, the following:
(1)
The total number of complaints alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) that were received by the Secretary, disaggregated with respect to both number and percentage, by each protected class established under such Act.
(2)
The number and percentage of the total number of complaints that allege violations of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291 et seq.).
(3)
The number and percentage of the total number of complaints referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) that—
(A)
were made by persons experiencing homelessness;
(B)
were made by tenants; and
(C)
were made by persons who have applied for covered housing, disaggregated by each specific type of covered housing for which such person applied.
(4)
For each State, the number and percentage of the total number of complaints referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) that were made by residents of such State.
(5)
The number and percentage of the total number complaints referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) that alleged that the complainant was retaliated against after reporting the alleged violation and, of such number, the number and percentage that alleged that the complainant was evicted for any retaliatory reason.
(6)
The status of the complaints referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2), including a detailed description of the resolutions and remedies provided and, for complaints that were administratively closed, of the reasons for such closures.
(7)
The number and percentage of the total number of complaints referred to in paragraph (1) that were received by—
(A)
State agencies assisted under the Fair Housing Assistance Program authorized under section 810 of the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3610); and
(B)
local agencies assisted under the Fair Housing Initiatives Program authorized under section 817 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 3616).
(8)
The number and percentage of the total number of complaints referred to in paragraph (1) that ended in a reasonable cause charge by the Secretary or were referred to the Attorney General by the Secretary.
(9)
The number and percentage of the total number of complaints referred to in paragraph (1) received by the Attorney General that were not referred to the Attorney General by the Secretary.