BUILD Act

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stivers) not only for yielding time in support of my bill but giving the creative one in my family recognition for the pithy acronym that goes with this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, as has been stated, my bill is the Building Up Independent Lives and Dreams Act, which is also known as the BUILD Act.

First, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have worked with me to make this a strong, bipartisan effort.

I appreciate the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) for cosponsoring this bill and for his work, with our staffs working together, to make this is a bill as perfected as we can.

I thank Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry for recommending this bill to come to the floor for a vote.

I also thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez) for her support and cosponsorship of this important legislation.

Last year, it was brought to my attention that certain regulations enacted by Dodd-Frank were placing a significant burden on charitable organizations that provide low-cost housing to needy families. These nonprofits were having to spend an excessive amount of time and resources complying with these new regulations, which were ultimately designed for large mortgage lenders.

The time and effort that they were spending on regulatory compliance was taking resources away from these nonprofits' core mission of providing affordable housing.

The problem, as I learned, was that the Dodd-Frank Act required the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to combine the TILA loan estimate and the RESPA closing disclosure forms into one integrated mortgage disclosure form called TRID.

While the intention of the new TRID forms was to ensure that home buyers received essential information about the costs and terms of their home loans, the unintended consequences of this one-size-fits-all approach significantly impacted nonprofit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity.

The TRID rule is nearly 2,000 pages long, very complex, and includes disclosure forms for things such as balloon loans and adjustable rate mortgages. While these types of loans may be applicable to traditional mortgage lenders, they are not relevant to these nonprofits. These new rules and their associated forms have caused confusion

for home buyers, staff, and volunteers of these charitable organizations.

To further complicate the matter, the new TRID disclosures were designed to be completed by computer software. However, these software applications are much too costly for many local Habitat affiliates and other nonprofits.

The vast majority of more than 1,200 Habitat groups nationwide are small, community-based organizations with very small mortgage portfolios. Few, if any, have full-time staff. These organizations have experienced challenges with the costs and the complexity of the TRID mortgage disclosure forms.

To remedy these problems, and to provide regulatory relief to these nonprofits, the BUILD Act exempts charities from the cost and complexity of the new TRID rule but still ensures that the terms of these mortgage loans are disclosed.

Mortgage lenders that make five or fewer loans a year are already exempt from TRID and are allowed to use the much simpler forms that were in place prior to Dodd-Frank. The BUILD Act simply extends this same exemption to nonprofits that are eligible for tax-exempt charitable donations and are making zero-interest mortgage loans, regardless of how many mortgage loans they are making per year.

The BUILD Act will allow local Habitat facilities, and other similar nonprofits, to choose whether they use these older but simpler forms or the new, more complicated TRID forms.

In closing, I want to reiterate that the purpose of this bill is to help charitable organizations spend more time fulfilling their mission, which is providing low-cost housing to needy families, and less time sitting in an office doing regulatory paperwork.

The bill recognizes that one size does not fit all, especially when it comes to regulating these charities, and it gives them the flexibility to choose which mortgage disclosure forms work best for them and for those they help.

As my colleague Mr. Sherman has already brought up, this bill passed the Financial Services Committee and the House unanimously last Congress. I hope that we can repeat that again today here in a few moments.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me in support of this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1060) to provide regulatory relief to charitable organizations that provide housing assistance, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 1060, the BUILD Act, which is bipartisan legislation authored by Representatives Loudermilk and Sherman that will allow nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, offering mortgage loans for charitable purposes

to use alternative forms to satisfy disclosure requirements.

Specifically, this bill would allow bona fide nonprofits which are eligible for tax-exempt charitable donations to have the option to use the Truth in Lending, Good Faith Estimate, and HUD-1 forms instead of TRID forms required by the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule. They may only do so in limited circumstances where they offer a zero percent interest loan.

Currently, financial institutions that make five or fewer mortgage loans a year are allowed to use these alternative disclosure forms, including the HUD-1 form, instead of the TRID form.

This bill simply extends this flexibility to eligible nonprofit charities in very limited circumstances, even if they make more than five mortgage loans a year.

Passing this bipartisan legislation will help nonprofits do their important work in helping families in our communities build and improve places to call home.

For example, the vast majority of the more than 1,200 local Habitat organizations in all 50 States are small, community-based organizations with very small mortgage portfolios and few, if any, full-time staff and rely on volunteers for much of their operations.

The BUILD Act will help charities like Habitat help families get a home of their own, but still ensures the material terms and costs of mortgage loans are clearly disclosed to the borrower.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representatives Loudermilk and Sherman for their work on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1060, the BUILD Act.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman), a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and lead cosponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate my thanks to the members of our committee, Representatives Loudermilk and Sherman, for working together to craft a narrow piece of legislation that will help nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity have flexibility on which disclosure forms they use when they provide a zero-interest mortgage loan to a family getting a home of their own.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1060, the BUILD Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1060, the BUILD Act. This bipartisan legislation addresses an unintended consequence of the Know Before You Owe disclosure rule, better known as TRID.

The BUILD Act is a straightforward solution, and it allows bona fide nonprofits making zero percent interest loans to use whichever Truth in Lending form they feel is better. They can use the Truth in Lending, Good Faith Estimate, and the HUD-1 form instead of the TRID forms, or they can choose the TRID forms.

Currently, organizations making five or fewer mortgage loans are exempt from using the TRID forms. This extends that exemption to charities making zero percent interest loans, regardless of how many loans they make per year.

The costs and complexities associated with TRID have left charities like Habitat for Humanity struggling to provide mortgages. These nonprofits have limited resources. In fact, many of their 1,200 community-based affiliates have little or no full-time staff.

Despite their size, these organizations play a pivotal role in our communities. Today, the House will play a small part in helping them continue to serve our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman). They have worked together diligently on this legislation for several years and should be commended for their efforts.

I want to thank the chairwoman, Ms. Waters of California, for her efforts on this.

Mr. Speaker, I urge this legislation to be supported, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk). He is not only an Air Force veteran, but his wife came up with the acronym for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would close by saying that the gentleman from Georgia and the gentleman from California have worked very hard on a bill that passed our committee unanimously and that helps nonprofits accomplish their mission of building capacity in housing, and I urge adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 9 o'clock and 10 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15, 2019, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.