The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a series of legislative recommendations on Wednesday that it sent to the chairman and ranking member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, which is considering amendments to a bill centered on real estate lending.
The first part is House Joint Resolution 120, which codifies Congress's disapproval of rules submitted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) that provide a designation framework for classifying non-bank financial institutions as systemically important, without resulting in any conclusions or designations.
The MBA has consistently opposed such measures, with President and CEO Bob Broeksmit saying at a conference in Washington, D.C., last year that the measure would “really amount to a significant seizure of regulatory power over parts of the mortgage finance market that are already appropriately regulated by states and other federal agencies.”
The MBA recommends a vote in favor of the resolution, which is lead sponsored by Rep. French Hill (R-Arkansas) and co-sponsored by nine of his Republican colleagues.
“MBA believes that the FSOC should be compelled to conduct a deep and thorough analysis, including considering the costs and benefits of such a designation to the U.S. financial system as a whole, and the likelihood that the financial companies in question would experience significant financial difficulties as a result of the designation,” the MBA said in its letter.
The second bill is House Resolution 5535, also known as the Insurance Data Protection Act. According to the bill's text, the bill would “prohibit the Treasury Department's Federal Insurance Office and other financial regulators from collecting data directly from insurance companies.”
The MBA also supports the measure, it said in the letter.
“If enacted as written, this bill will protect consumer data, preserve the state's role as the primary regulator of the insurance business, and reduce administrative costs for our life insurance company members engaged in commercial real estate financing activities,” the letter said.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), has full Republican support and 25 co-sponsors.
Finally, HR 802, known as the Respect State Housing Laws Act, would, among other purposes, “amend the CARES Act to remove landlord eviction notice requirements,” according to the bill's text.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was passed shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020 and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump later that month. According to the MBA's letter, HR 802 would remove “the provision in the CARES Act that requires a 30-day notice period before a landlord can initiate eviction proceedings against a tenant in federally assisted or assisted housing.”
The MBA also supports the measure, explaining in a letter that the 30-day notice period “is meant to be temporary, but creates unnecessary federal interference under state law and imposes significant operational disruption and financial burdens on housing providers.”
This bill is technically the only one of the three that has bipartisan support: Sponsored by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), it has 31 Republican co-sponsors and one Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Vicente Gonzales of Texas.