Capitol Reports HUD Abolishes MPS by Harlow G. Unger For the first time in more than half a century, home builders in the U.S. began the new year free of all federal building-code restrictions. In one of the most far-reaching actions of the Reagan administration's conservative "revolution," the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has abolished the Minimum Property Standards (MPS) of the Federal Housing Administration—the federal building codes that effectively provided a nationwide minimum standard for home construction everywhere in the U.S. Abolition of the standards this past November was the latest step in a sweeping effort by the Reagan administration to reduce federal regulations and transfer governmental authority back to states and local communities. As a result
