The National Fair Housing Alliance Calls on Senate to Reject the CHOICE Act

June 9, 2017
Contact:  Jessica Aiwuyor, 202‐898‐1661, jaiwuyor@nationalfairhousing.org

The National Fair Housing Alliance Calls on Senate to Reject the CHOICE Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Fair Housing Alliance strongly condemns the action by the US House of Representatives yesterday to pass HR 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, more aptly referred to as the “Wrong CHOICE Act.”  HR 10 rolls back the significant Dodd-Frank Act protections for consumers, investors, and the US economy, adopted in the aftermath of the 2008 housing and financial crash. That crash was the result of Wall Street greed, the misalignment of incentives between lenders and borrowers, lax regulatory oversight, and the proliferation of toxic lending products.

Borrowers and communities of color bore the brunt of the impact of the crash, which caused millions of families to lose their homes to foreclosure, and resulted in African Americans losing 53% of their household wealth and Latinos or Hispanics losing 66% of their household wealth, compared to a 16% loss of wealth by white households. While banks have reported record profits in the years since the crash, many of the families and communities that were hardest hit by the crisis are still struggling to recover. Neither they nor the nation can afford a repeat of the crisis, and yesterday’s action by the House opens up the door to just such a debacle.

In particular, NFHA condemns the provisions of HR 10 that weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the only federal financial regulator whose sole mission is to look out for the interests of consumers in the financial marketplace. The CFPB has enacted common sense rules to ensure that consumers are treated fairly. Through its oversight and enforcement of those rules, the CFPB has returned nearly $12 billion to consumers who were cheated by the lenders with whom they did business.

HR 10 now goes to the Senate, and NFHA calls on that body to stand up for American consumers and reject the CHOICE Act and all of its provisions.

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