“We’re all for ideas to remove obstacles to inclusive communities, including regulatory burdens that stand in the way of desegregation,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, in a statement. “But we’re concerned that HUD is taking action to remove regulations, while not meaningfully addressing America’s deep problems of segregation and inequality.”

Since the financial crisis, 86 more banking deserts have emerged in rural areas, according to a recent report published by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which advocates for increasing access to financial services.

“It appears, at least in terms of accountability, that they’ve softened the touch — and we’re concerned about that,” said Jesse Van Tol, chief executive at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

As a result, they went underground. Instead of advocating directly, they started to use community institutions “as the point of the spear on their lobbying efforts,” said Jesse Van Tol, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, essentially using small-bank legislation as a vehicle for large-bank provisions.

“Justice Kennedy, a conservative, wrote in 2015 that ’restrictions that unfairly exclude minorities’ are unlawful,” said Jesse Van Tol, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.“This is a simple standard of fairness.”

Kennedy was the swing vote on a case that affirmed the Fair Housing Act protects against discrimination even if it isn’t explicit.

African American workers are disappearing at major U.S. banks, all while men who run the biggest firms preach the value of diversity.

New Legislation Would Restore Revoked Protections and Rules

West Virginia businesses are finding it increasingly hard to raise capital for investment. Nationally, each of the state’s 55 counties rank in the lowest quintile for loan access, leading the National Community Reinvestment Coalition to categorize the state as a “lending desert.”