Improving FHA Support for Small-Dollar Mortgages Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. McHENRY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1532.

Some studies suggest that small-dollar mortgages, which are amounts less than $70,000, may be disproportionately denied compared to loans of higher amounts, even when credit profiles are similar.

If true, this could be an issue for families in my district and across the country who are trying to buy their first home, particularly in rural America.

H.R. 1532 is a bipartisan bill reported last Congress by the House Financial Services Committee that seeks to understand the challenges associated with small-dollar lending and why.

This bill asks the fundamental questions: Why not have the FHA review its own policies? Why shouldn't the FHA look to determine whether there are borrowers who would otherwise qualify for a mortgage and who are being left out of the market as an unintended consequence of the FHA's own regulations?

After all, the FHA's mission is to serve creditworthy borrowers who are underserved by the private market. This includes serving without bias as to how small a loan seeking insurance should be or might be.

Moreover, the FHA should understand whether its own regulations are hurting borrowers' access to credit and remedy the problem without affecting the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which is at issue.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues on the subcommittee, in particular Mr. Cleaver and Ranking Member Stivers, for bringing this issue to our attention and for their work on this important bill.

H.R. 1532 is a positive example of Congress identifying a problem and working together in a bipartisan way to understand the causes and to identify a reasonable solution.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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