Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Madam Chair, I rise to offer this amendment to restore and protect important provisions of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

More than four decades after Congress passed HMDA, the evidence continues to suggest that racial minorities, women, and some rural residents still face loan discrimination by mortgage lenders.

In fact, a recent report from the Center for Investigative Reporting found that modern-day redlining has occurred in 61 metropolitan areas around the country.

Unfortunately, however, last year Congress voted to roll back enhanced HMDA protections passed under the Dodd-Frank Act, exempting 85 percent of all banks and credit unions from reporting loan characteristics vital to ensuring lending fairness.

My amendment will reverse this shortsighted decision. It reinstates the requirement put in place by Dodd-Frank that any bank or credit union that makes more than 25 mortgage loans per year or 100 home equity lines of credit report detailed loan characteristics.

My amendment will establish additional safeguards to defend HMDA from further assault by the Trump administration and those who seek to destroy it by:

Prohibiting the CFPB from making further HMDA modifications to exempt additional institutions from complying with its reporting requirements;

Barring the CFPB from making further modifications to eliminate HMDA data fields that are otherwise required to be collected and reported; and

Preventing the CFPB from retiring its HMDA Explorer and the public data platform, both of which are critical to the public's ability to access loan level data and root out discrimination in their communities.

These protections are not just preventive measures but needed reforms. Just this month, the CFPB released proposals to further erode HMDA requirements.

The public's access to mortgage data is essential to promoting fair lending, homeownership, and stronger communities.

As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant. My amendment brings badly needed transparency to the home mortgage process, shining a light and helping us root out discrimination.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Madam Chair, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Madam Chair, I am ready to close.

Madam Chair, more than 40 years after Congress first passed HMDA, the evidence continues to demonstrate that countless Americans still face loan discrimination by mortgage lenders.

Data is the tool that makes it possible to fight discrimination. My amendment puts us back on the right track by ensuring this information remains available.

Madam Chair, I urge Members to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source