Providing For Consideration Of H.r. 3192, Homebuyers Assistance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I applaud and thank my colleague from Ohio and my colleague from Arkansas for their leadership on this issue.

On May 22, I sent a bipartisan letter with my colleague, Congresswoman Maloney, to CFPB Director Richard Cordray requesting a grace period for compliance with the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, or TRID. The letter was signed by 254 Members of Congress. Of those, 92 were Democrats.

TRID is a complex rule and compliance term requiring new, untested software to harmonize data from realtors, mortgage brokers, lenders, land title agents, and others involved in the closing process. All that our letter requested was a grace period for those making good faith efforts to comply with the rule. No delay in the rule, no reproposal, just a grace period.

We have listened to our constituents, and what they tell us is that innocent mistakes are inevitable as the disclosure software is tested in the real world for the first time. In fact, CFPB cited a mistake as the reason to delay implementation of the rule from August 1 until this past Saturday, October 3.

However, that delay and promises of sensitive enforcement do nothing to provide certainty that honest mistakes during the early days of TRID, when these untested systems are used in real transactions, will not be punished with fines and lawsuits. If the Bureau is allowed to make mistakes, then our constituents should also be allowed to make innocent mistakes without penalty for a brief period of time to establish the systems necessary to reliably comply.

The Bureau, however, has proven unwilling to act. So today we cpro-consumer? This is the regulation from Washington. This is complex. This is not simplification for consumers. This makes the home buying process more difficult. onsider a bill that implements the grace period requested in that letter. The Homebuyers Assistance Act simply provides a grace period until February 1, 2016, to ensure that home buyers and sellers can be assured their transaction will not be delayed and industry participants won't need to fear enforcement actions or frivolous lawsuits over data issues or typos.

It is what 92 of our Democratic colleagues requested just 5 months ago. But today, faced with a legislative solution to the problem, our colleagues are balking. The President has issued a veto threat. Leader Pelosi is whipping her members against the bill.

This is quite baffling. It seems to me that the interests of trial lawyers are trumping those of consumers trying to buy or sell their homes. Make no mistake. Allowing immediate legal liability under TRID only benefits litigious attorneys and overzealous bureaucrats.

So, Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and the underlying bill and hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will do the same.

In closing, let me just address the response that we should be on the side of consumers. That is absolutely correct. We should be on the side of consumers. What my constituents tell me back home is that, unfortunately, this new regulation doesn't make home buying simpler.

In fact, the number of pages are the same. Look at the regulation. Is this pro-consumer? This is the regulation from Washington. This is complex. This is not simplification for consumers. This makes the home buying process more difficult.

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Mr. BARR. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, this makes the home buying process more difficult for consumers. But at the end of the day, even if we are going to go forward with this new, complicated regulation, 1,800 pages or so, at least--at least--give the participants--the closing attorneys, the title insurance agents, the Realtors, the advocates for the home buyers, and the advocates for the consumers--let them have a brief period of time where they can get up to speed with the complexity of this rule so that innocent mistakes are not punished and that home buyers are not punished.

Let's set the politics aside on this. This is not about Democrat or Republican here. We have got a big bipartisan letter. This is something that protects our constituents. This is what our constituents are telling us they need to come into compliance with this new, complex law.

Isn't buying and selling a home, isn't moving from home to home, complex enough? Let's not let the bureaucrats make it even more difficult.

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, just briefly in response to my colleague from Massachusetts and the analysis that this 1,800-page regulation is just a prop and he blames about 171 pages on explanations and guidance and suggests that, well, that is a good thing, we want explanations and guidance from the bureaucrats to explain how this works, let me tell you what my constituents back in Kentucky are telling me what happens in the real world.

In the real world, how closing attorneys--this is a closing attorney in Kentucky who says this interprets this stack of paper, and he says, ``I am going to have to do two closings, a TRID-compliant closing and then another closing that actually informs my client what is going on in the transaction.''

Now, is that simplifying things for consumers? Does that make things easier for a home buyer and a home seller to have two closings, one that is TRID-compliant, compliant with the bureaucracy, and one that actually helps the home buyer with a HUD settlement statement? I don't think so.

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, the point here is that we should be making things easier. If it is so doggone complicated that you have to have two closings, at least give us 6 months to figure this thing out, 6 months of a grace period for good faith efforts to come into compliance where innocent mistakes happen.

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