42 U.S.C. § 12705c — Grants for regulatory barrier removal strategies and implementation

(a) Funding: Congress may appropriate whatever money is needed for grants under subsections (b) and (c), for each of fiscal years 2001 through 2005.

(b) Grant authority: The Secretary^* may give grants to states and local governments (including groups of them working together) to develop and carry out strategies that remove regulatory barriers to affordable housing^*. This grant money can cover the cost of (1) identifying, assessing, and monitoring state^* and local regulatory barriers; (2) identifying state and local policies, including laws and rules, that create or allow those barriers; (3) writing legislation for state, local, or regional programs that reduce regulatory barriers, and planning how to get that legislation passed; (4) creating model state or local standards and ordinances that reduce barriers, and helping communities adopt and use them; (5) simplifying and combining administrative procedures -- including permitting -- that act as regulatory barriers to affordable housing; and (6) giving technical help and information to local governments carrying out legislative and administrative reforms to remove these barriers.

(c) Repealed. This subsection was repealed by Pub. L. 106-569, title I, section 102(c), December 27, 2000.

(d) Definitions: In this section, "regulatory barriers to affordable housing" and "regulatory barriers" mean the same thing they mean in section 12705b.

(e) Application and selection: The Secretary decides the form and process for grant applications. Every application must explain how the grant money will help the state or local government develop and carry out its strategy for removing regulatory barriers. The Secretary must set approval criteria requiring that the grant money be used in a way that matches the strategy already laid out in that jurisdiction's comprehensive housing affordability strategy under section 12705(b)(4).

(f) Selection of grantees: As far as money is available, the Secretary awards these grants competitively, based on how each applicant proposes to use the funds.

(g) Coordination with clearinghouse: Every state or local government that gets one of these grants must consult, coordinate, and share information with the clearinghouse set up under section 12705d.

(h) Reports to Secretary: Every state or local government that gets a grant must send the Secretary a report within 12 months of getting the money, describing what it did with the grant. That report must also assess how any regulatory barriers the grantee found have affected housing patterns for minority residents.