TO: HUD CODE MANUFACTURED HOUSING INDUSTRY MEMBERS
FROM: MHARR
RE: MHI ENERGY LEGISLATION DEBACLE KEEPS GETTING WORSE
MHARR has been clear on the record that while it supports the repeal of the manufactured housing “permanent chassis” mandate contained in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (ROAD Act), that legislation (publicly advocated by the Manufactured Housing Institute), which became law on July 11, 2026, does nothing to effectively address or remedy the three principal bottlenecks suppressing the production, sale and utilization of mainstream, affordable federally-regulated manufactured homes – i.e., (1) discriminatory zoning exclusion; (2) lack of consumer chattel financing support under the Duty to Serve (DTS) mandate; and (3) looming discriminatory, high-cost “energy” standards.
Even worse, while the ROAD Act virtually ignores zoning exclusion and the total lack of DTS/chattel support for manufactured housing consumers by the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), it tap dances around the issue of extreme, high-cost energy regulation, leaving the industry and consumers at the mercy of multiple federal regulators, across multiple agencies, with no guarantee whatsoever, that the draconian, high-cost manufactured housing energy standards adopted as “final” by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on May 31, 2022 — at the urging of energy/climate extremists – will not ultimately be imposed by a future presidential administration. Here are the undistilled, unvarnished FACTS.
On September 8, 2025, Rep. Erin Houchin filed a bill – H.R. 5184 – that would have:
(1) Repealed the statutory basis for DOE manufactured housing energy regulation (i.e., section 413 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007); and
(2) Repealed the May 31, 2022 “final” DOE manufactured housing “energy” standards adopted by DOE pursuant to that statutory authorization.
MHARR immediately announced its public support for this bill which would have ended the DOE energy debacle without question. MHI, for its part, continued to support the ROAD Act, as it was.
While the ROAD Act was being considered – and revised almost continually – in the House and Senate, the Houchin Bill was publicly known, publicly available, and could have simply been incorporated within the ROAD Act as a no-nonsense, straightforward provision. Instead, though, the ROAD Act, as adopted, contains a byzantine provision on manufactured housing energy standards which provides: (1) that manufactured housing energy standards from any federal agency must be adopted through HUD; (2) that HUD must adopt manufactured housing energy standards within one year of enactment; and (3) that HUD must update those energy standards at least once every three years.
Under this tortured ROAD Act formulation – as MHARR has previously pointed out – a future presidential administration could still:
(1) Move forward with the 2022 “final” DOE standards, claiming that the ROAD Act is not retroactive (i.e., does not apply to the “final” 2022 DOE energy standards);
(2) Press HUD to adopt the 2022 DOE standards – as is – with no changes (or with minimal changes); or
(3) Simply ignore the procedural requirements of the ROAD Act altogether and implement the 2022 DOE standards.
Alternatively, energy/climate activist groups could bring litigation to compel enforcement of the 2022 “final” DOE standards based on any of the same legal theories (or others).
So, instead of publicly advocating for the inclusion of the Houchin Bill approach in the ROAD Act, MHI supported the ROAD Act with the foregoing bizarre formulation regarding DOE manufactured housing energy standards.
Now, though, after the ROAD Act is already law, and the opportunity to incorporate the Houchin Bill language in that law – instead of the current byzantine formulation – has passed, an apparent analog to the Houchin Bill, entitled “The Affordable Housing Over Mandating Efficiency Standards Act“ has been introduced (as of September 24, 2026) in the U.S. Senate with MHI touting that bill and the need “to restore regulatory clarity” on energy in an accompanying news release!
Put differently, MHI, after: (1) supporting the ROAD Act with its useless, failed and flawed approach to DOE energy regulation; (2) after being called-out by MHARR for its baseless support of that approach; (3) after having the flaws of that approach detailed by MHARR and (4) having helped to create the utter lack of “regulatory clarity” that it is only now decrying — is trying to garner public (and industry) credit for promoting a Senate analog to the Houchin Bill. Instead, it should be compelled to explain why it has taken such a clumsy and potentially harmful approach to an obvious and known problem.
While it could be said that taking action to cure this obvious failure is better late than never, the political realities of 2026 and the looming midterm election suggest otherwise. First, the legislative days remaining to pass the Houchin Bill and Senate analog – with the midterm election closing-in – are virtually nil. Nor is it likely that Congress would tackle such an issue with that election only weeks away. Second, after the midterm election, the prospects for these bills only gets worse – especially if (as is widely predicted) — there is a change in the party control of either the House or Senate (or both). If that occurs, it is highly unlikely (at best) that a Democrat-controlled House or Senate would vote to repeal a supposed “environmental”/climate measure such as the DOE manufactured home energy standards authorization. In short, while MHI is scrambling to correct a clear, unforced error in the ROAD Act, it is highly unlikely that that cure will be adopted in the current political climate and environment.
cc: Other Interested Affordable Housing Proponents
Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR)
1331 Pennsylvania Ave N.W., Suite 512
Washington D.C. 20004
Phone: 202/783-4087
Fax: 202/783-4075
Email: MHARRDG@AOL.COM
Website: www.manufacturedhousingassociation.org
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MHARR’s press releases are available for re-publication in full (i.e.: without alteration or substantive modification) without further permission and with proper attribution and/or linkback to MHARR.
MHARR notes that the featured image was generated by ChatGPT. The MHARR article was written with human intelligence not artificial intelligence.
