Building Up Independent Lives and Dreams Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk). It has been a pleasure working with him on this bill, the Building Up Independent Lives and Dreams, or BUILD, Act. He has worked hard to get this over the goal line and has worked in a collaborative and bipartisan process.

We have heard from a number of Habitat for Humanity chapters across the Nation who make more than five loans a year and are having difficulty complying with the mandatory TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure form. They believe it has additional costs and complexity, especially when they had previously set up their systems to deal with the old forms.

The BUILD Act is straightforward and addresses those concerns. The bill allows a bona fide nonprofit that makes zero interest rate loans, like Habitat for Humanity, the flexibility in deciding which disclosure forms to use.

They can either use the relatively new TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure form, or they can use the three previously required forms: the Truth in Lending form, the Good Faith Estimate form, and the HUD-1 form.

This bill is supported by Habitat for Humanity International and the National Housing Conference.

It is a narrow tweak to ensure that nonprofits offering zero percent interest loans can focus on helping people get housing rather than focus on reprogramming their system to deal with the new TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure form.

This bill passed our committee 53 to 0 last year. It passed this House by voice vote last year. It went over to the Senate, where the Senate did what it all too frequently does, which is nothing.

I look forward to giving the Senate another opportunity by sending this bill back to them, since it has not only overwhelming but unanimous support here in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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