Today, a diverse coalition of 260 national, state and local community-based organizations called on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to immediately suspend the comment period for the proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) until after the health and financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus global pandemic is over.
In a letter written and submitted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), the coalition of housing, consumer protection and community development organizations highlighted how the pandemic is causing them all to drop policy-related matters like comment writing to focus on their constituents immediate needs like small business and housing counseling.
“This grave pandemic demands a comprehensive and all-encompassing response. The health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens and residents are at stake. Organizations like ours that are both most interested and most likely to comment on the government’s proposed rule changes have had to focus on our clients, our members, our communities and basic survival,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO of NCRC. “All hands are on deck dealing with our national and global emergency. It makes no sense and is inappropriate to push ahead with non-essential rule-making at this time, given the dire and grave needs of our fellow citizens and residents that our organizations are addressing.”
View the list of signers, read the full letter:
https://ncrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-extension-request.pdf
