The Washington Report

April 3, 2023

In This Issue

Clean Water Act
Senate Passes WOTUS CRA Resolution

Valuation Issues Update
NAR Sends Letter to HUD Asking for Legal Clarification for Appraisal Discrimination

Clean Water Act

Senate Passes WOTUS CRA Resolution

On March 29, 2023, the Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) of the waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule by a vote of 53-43, which was passed by the House earlier this month. This was a bipartisan vote, with Senators Rosen (D-NV), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Manchin (D-WV), Tester (D-MT) and Sinema (I-AZ) joining Republicans to support the measure.

The WOTUS CRA resolution now goes to President Biden, who has publicly stated he will veto it. If the President does so, and Congress votes to override the veto, the resolution would block the WOTUS rule and revert to pre-2015 regulations and guidance.

Christie DeSanctis, CDeSanctis@nar.realtor, 202-383-1102
Russell Riggs, rriggs@nar.realtor, 202-383-1259

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Valuation Issues Update

NAR Sends Letter to HUD Asking for Legal Clarification for Appraisal Discrimination

Allegations of appraisal bias have been widespread in the news in recent years, but few cases have resulted in legal clarity. Critical to building education tools for NAR's appraiser-members are the legal precedence and opinions used to create the curriculum.

To this end, NAR's letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):

Recommends that HUD moves forward quickly with its outstanding investigations, and requests that the agency provide legal clarity both in cases where discrimination was found and also in cases where discrimination was not found;
Provides an NAR summary on how appraisal bias affects REALTORS® (appraisers and agents); and
Offers academic analysis of the magnitude of the effect of appraisal bias, and emphasizes NAR's efforts to help eliminate it.

Ken Fears, kfears@nar.realtor, 202-383-1066

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