U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Cartersville) this week saw the House unanimously pass his Building Up Independent Lives and Dreams (BUILD) Act after a whirlwind two-month process that saw it go from concept to reality.
The bill seeks to remove red tape for non-profit organizations that work to provide housing for those in need. Those charitable organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, often struggle with compliance due to regulations put on them by the Dodd-Frank Act (namely the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms), hindering their ability to carry out their missions. Under the BUILD Act, charities will be able to go back to using good faith estimate and HUD-1 mortgage forms, which are much simpler and easier to use, especially when working on a small scale.
Loudermilk pointed especially to charities in rural Georgia that were struggling with the new TRID forms and the expensive loan origination software used to keep track of them.
The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), passed the House Financial Services Committee via a 53-to-0 vote in May and followed that with unanimous passage in the lower chamber this week.
Said Loudermilk on the bill’s passage, “The BUILD Act is on the move. In just two short months, BUILD has gone from an idea, to passing out of the Financial Services Committee with a vote of 53-0, and now passing the House of Representatives unanimously.”
“This bill is a major help for non-profit organizations, like Habitat for Humanity, which provide low cost housing for those in need. The BUILD Act cuts government red-tape by reducing some of the overly burdensome regulations placed on charities by the Dodd-Frank Act. The difficulty and cost of compliance has been too much for some non-profits, causing them to spend less time fulfilling their mission of building homes for needy families, and more time sitting in an office doing regulatory paperwork. The BUILD Act recognizes that these non-profit organizations operate under different business models than traditional financial institutions, and provides a simpler method for providing mortgage disclosures.”
