To contact your legislator, call the Congressional switchboard at 877-210-5351.
Summary: At the end of October, President Obama and Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan budget agreement to lift the severe “sequestration” spending caps first enacted as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011. With an overall budget in place, Congress is now facing a December 11 deadline to pass a year-end spending bill that decides how those additional budget dollars will be spent among the various federal programs and agencies. Earlier this year, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees passed their respective Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) for FY2016 that propose drastic cuts for some key housing programs. Your lawmakers now have the opportunity to enact better funding for a variety of important housing priorities, including affordable housing, housing counseling and fair housing enforcement. In addition, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and others want to attach a long list of “policy riders” to the year-end spending bill for FY2016. Those riders would rollback provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act, undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and fair housing enforcement, and enact provisions related to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that place the Affordable Housing Goals and access to mortgage credit for creditworthy borrowers in traditionally underserved markets at risk.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to:
ENSURE KEY HOUSING PROGRAMS ARE FUNDED: Among other programs, ask them to:
- Restore funding for National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC).
- Restore funding to the HOME Investment Partnership Program.
- Ensure the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) is funded, as well as the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI).
PASS A CLEAN FY 2016 OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL. Tell your Senators and Representatives to:
- Oppose efforts to weaken fair housing enforcement.
- Oppose efforts to delay the CFPB’s release of data about mortgage products and the housing market under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
- Oppose policy riders that weaken the Dodd Frank Act that was put into place to restrict Wall Street and Big Banks from the harmful practices that led to the recent financial crisis.
- Oppose provisions related to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will undermine the affordable housing goals and put access to mortgage credit for creditworthy borrowers in traditionally underserved markets at risk.
- Oppose policy riders that would undermine the CFPB’s work on behalf of U.S. Consumers.
It’s up to us to ensure the integrity of our financial system and fair housing programs! To contact your legislator, call the Congressional switchboard at 877-210-5351.
