A new housing rule from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is designed to reduce regulatory burdens on local communities to qualify for HUD financing and preserve the “American dream” of homeownership.

“Washington has no business dictating what is best to meet your local community’s unique needs,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

Carson announced the new regulation replaces an Obama administration rule that Carson said was “a ruse for social engineering under the guise of desegregation, essentially turning HUD into a national zoning board,”

Carson added that the old rule was “unworkable and ultimately a waste of time for localities to comply with.”

President Trump said the new rule is designed to protect American communities from excessive federal overreach and preserve local decision-making.

Here’s what the new rule actually does:

l The new rule eliminates the excessive burden put on local communities and gets rid of the top-down approach that dictated zoning for communities.

l The rule will help promote housing that is affordable, decent, safe and free from discrimination.

l Localities will continue to certify that they will affirmatively further fair housing required by law.

The president also noted the over-regulation of our suburbs would have harmed Americans’ abilities to work, buy homes, and build lives for their families, including many minority communities.

“The suburbs represent a vital part of the American dream, as Americans work to build a better life for themselves and start a home for their families,” the president said.

Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said that the old rule allowed federal bureaucrats in Washington to control zoning laws, the placement of business districts, and to some degree drawing school districts.

Untangling the byzantine federal bureaucracy has been one of the hallmark achievements of the Trump administration.

It was one of our earliest presidents, Thomas Jefferson who warned against an excessively powerful federal government, when he said, “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”