Establishing a White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing

Executive Order 13878 of June 25, 2019

Establishing a White House Council on Eliminating
Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing

By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Purpose. For many Americans, access to
affordable housing is becoming far too difficult.
Rising housing costs are forcing families to dedicate
larger shares of their monthly incomes to housing. In
2017, approximately 37 million renter and owner
households spent more than 30 percent of their incomes
on housing, with more than 18 million spending more
than half of their incomes on housing. Between 2001 and
2017, the number of renter households allocating more
than half of their incomes toward rent increased by
nearly 45 percent. These rising costs are leaving
families with fewer resources for necessities such as
food, healthcare, clothing, education, and
transportation, negatively affecting their quality of
life and hindering their access to economic
opportunity.

Driving the rise in housing costs is a lack of housing
supply to meet demand. Federal, State, local, and
tribal governments impose a multitude of regulatory
barriers--laws, regulations, and administrative
practices--that hinder the development of housing.
These regulatory barriers include: overly restrictive
zoning and growth management controls; rent controls;
cumbersome building and rehabilitation codes; excessive
energy and water efficiency mandates; unreasonable
maximum-density allowances; historic preservation
requirements; overly burdensome wetland or
environmental regulations; outdated manufactured-
housing regulations and restrictions; undue parking
requirements; cumbersome and time-consuming permitting
and review procedures; tax policies that discourage
investment or reinvestment; overly complex labor
requirements; and inordinate impact or developer fees.
These regulatory barriers increase the costs associated
with development, and, as a result, drive down the
supply of affordable housing. They are the leading
factor in the growth of housing prices across
metropolitan areas in the United States. Many of the
markets with the most severe shortages in affordable
housing contend with the most restrictive State and
local regulatory barriers to development.

These regulatory barriers impede our Nation's economic
growth. Hardworking American families struggle to live
in markets where there is an insufficient supply of
housing--even in markets generating a significant
number of jobs. One recent study suggests that certain
regulatory restrictions on housing supply have forced
workers to live far away from high-productivity areas
with the best available jobs, creating a geographic
misallocation of labor between cities that may have
decreased the annual economic growth rate in the United
States by 36 percent between 1964 and 2009.

Low- and middle-income Americans are often hit the
hardest by regulatory barriers to housing development.
High housing costs place strains on household budgets,
limit educational opportunities, impair workforce
mobility, slow job creation, and increase financial
risks. Furthermore, studies have consistently
identified high housing prices as a primary determinant
of homelessness, and research has directly linked more
stringent housing market regulation to higher
homelessness rates.

To help these populations, in 2018, the Federal
Government invested more than $46 billion in rental
assistance programs for low-income families--

much of which grows at approximately 3 percent per
annum while assisting a fixed number of households. The
Federal Government provides additional housing support
through the tax code, with over $9.1 billion in tax
expenditures in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)
to developers of low-income housing. Generally, these
Federal tax dollars are focused disproportionately on
areas with high-cost and highly regulated housing
markets.

But to improve housing affordability in a truly
sustainable manner, we need innovative solutions--not
simply increases in spending and subsidies for Federal
housing. These solutions must address the regulatory
barriers that are inhibiting the development of
housing. If we fail to act, Federal subsidies will only
continue to mask the true cost of these onerous
regulatory barriers, and, as a result, many Americans
will not be able to access the opportunities they
deserve.

Sec. 2. Policy. It shall be the policy of my
Administration to work with Federal, State, local,
tribal, and private sector leaders to address, reduce,
and remove the multitude of overly burdensome
regulatory barriers that artificially raise the cost of
housing development and help to cause the lack of
housing supply. Increasing the supply of housing by
removing overly burdensome regulatory barriers will
reduce housing costs, boost economic growth, and
provide more Americans with opportunities for economic
mobility. In addition, it will strengthen American
communities and the quality of services offered in them
by allowing hardworking Americans to live in or near
the communities they serve.

Sec. 3. White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory
Barriers to Affordable Housing. There is hereby
established a White House Council on Eliminating
Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing (Council).
The Council shall be chaired by the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development, or his designee. The
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and the
Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, or
their designees, shall be Vice Chairs.

    (a) Membership. In addition to the Chair and Vice
Chairs, the Council shall consist of the following
officials, or their designees:

(i) the Secretary of the Treasury;

(ii) the Secretary of the Interior;

(iii) the Secretary of Agriculture;

(iv) the Secretary of Labor;

(v) the Secretary of Transportation;

(vi) the Secretary of Energy;

(vii) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;

(viii) the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;

(ix) the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers;

(x) the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental
Affairs; and

(xi) the heads of such other executive departments and agencies (agencies)
and offices as the President, Chair, or Vice Chairs may, from time to time,
designate or invite, as appropriate.

    (b) Administration. The Vice Chairs shall convene
regular meetings of the Council, determine its agenda,
and direct its work with the oversight of and in
consultation with the Chair. The Department of Housing
and Urban Development shall provide funding and
administrative support for the Council.

Sec. 4. Mission and Functions of the Council. The
Council shall work across agencies and offices, with
consideration of existing initiatives, to:

    (a) solicit feedback from State, local, and tribal
government officials, as well as relevant private-
sector stakeholders, including developers,
homebuilders, creditors, real estate professionals,
manufacturers, academic researchers, renters,
advocates, and homeowners, to:

(i) identify Federal, State, local, and tribal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of housing
development and contribute to shortages in housing supply, and

(ii) identify practices and strategies that most successfully reduce and
remove burdensome Federal, State, local, and tribal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of housing
development, while highlighting actors that successfully implement such
practices and strategies;

    (b) evaluate and quantify the effect that various
Federal, State, local, and tribal regulatory barriers
have on affordable housing development, and the economy
in general, and identify ways to improve the data
available to the public and private researchers who
evaluate such effects, without violating privacy laws
or creating unnecessary burdens;
    (c) identify and assess the actions each agency can
take under existing authorities to minimize Federal
regulatory barriers that unnecessarily raise the costs
of housing development;
    (d) assess the actions each agency can take under
existing authorities to align, support, and encourage
State, local, and tribal efforts to reduce regulatory
barriers that unnecessarily raise the costs of housing
development; and
    (e) recommend Federal, State, local, and tribal
actions and policies that would:

(i) reduce and streamline statutory, regulatory, and administrative burdens
at all levels of government that inhibit the development of affordable
housing, and

(ii) encourage State, local, and tribal governments to reduce regulatory
barriers to the development of affordable housing.

Sec. 5. Reports. The Vice Chairs, on behalf of the
Council, and with the oversight of and in consultation
with the Chair, shall:

    (a) within 12 months of the date of this order,
submit to the President a report on the Council's
implementation of section 4 of this order; and
    (b) submit to the President any subsequent report
that the President may request or that the Council may
deem appropriate.

Sec. 6. Agency Participation and Response. The heads of
agencies and offices shall provide such assistance and
information to the Council, consistent with applicable
law, as may be necessary to carry out the functions of
this order.

Sec. 7. Termination. The Council shall terminate on
January 21, 2021, unless extended by the President.

Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the
head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.

    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

    (Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    June 25, 2019.