Newsroom

March 25, 2013

Reg relief, housing on House committee hearing agenda

March 26, 2013 – Housing finance policy and an end to the "too big to fail" supervisory approach with large banks are on the House Financial Services Committee hearing agenda for April, along with relieving the regulatory burden on small community financial institutions.

The regulatory relief hearings are slated April 10 and 16 in the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. NAFCU is urging credit unions to contact their representatives over the next two weeks, while lawmakers are in recess, to let them know about credit unions' need for regulatory relief (start at NAFCU's grassroots action center).

In all, the House Financial Services Committee and its subcommittees have 10 hearings on their tentative schedule for April. Some of these include:

  • April 5 – examination of reports of waste, fraud and abuse at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations);
  • April 10 – future of the Federal Housing Administration (Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance);
  • April 16 – the need to end "too big to fail" (Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations);
  • April 17 – impediments to private capital in the housing finance system (full House Financial Services Committee);
  • April 24 – how the government-sponsored enterprise Sallie Mae was successfully wound down (by the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises);

NAFCU is continuing to press its core principles for housing finance reform, including the need to ensure credit unions have continued, unfettered access to the secondary mortgage market and the existence of at least two GSEs in any future housing finance regime. The association is also pressing lawmakers for increased FHA oversight.