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The House is expected to vote tomorrow on legislation to address public accessibility concerns under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). NAFCU has engaged with lawmakers for months on this issue to try to expand some of the bill's protections to help curb the meritless lawsuits filed against credit unions for website accessibility under the ADA.

The ADA Education and Reform Act (H.R. 620), introduced by Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, was advanced out of the House Rules Committee yesterday with a vote by the full House to come this week.

The bill as written applies to brick and mortar businesses and would set conditions for filing civil actions over the failure to remove an architectural barrier to an existing public place, among other things. NAFCU has engaged with Poe and other representatives to try to expand some of the bill's protections as credit unions and other financial institutions have faced a rash of lawsuits over the past year related to website accessibility requirements.

Four amicus briefs submitted by NAFCU have been accepted to support credit unions' motions to dismiss complaints filed against them in federal district court. One of those cases became a victory for credit unions last month as the court found that the plaintiff to such a lawsuit did not have standing to sue the credit union because he was not eligible for membership and would not likely use the credit union's services. In addition, the court indicated that a website is not a place of public accommodation, thus certain ADA protections were not triggered.

Resources for dealing with the ADA issue, including an updated FAQ document, can be found here.

The Rules Committee advanced two other NAFCU-supported regulatory relief bills yesterday that are expected to be voted on by the full House today:

• The Protecting Consumers' Access to Credit Act (H.R. 3299), introduced by Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., would amend various banking laws, including the Federal Credit Union Act, to provide that federal interest rate preemption applies "regardless of whether the loan is subsequently sold, assigned, or otherwise transferred to a third party," including a non-bank purchaser.
• The TRID Improvement Act (H.R. 3978), introduced by Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., would amend the CFPB's TILA/RESPA integrated disclosures rule (TRID), specifically how fees are presented on loan estimates and closing disclosure forms.