U.S. House of Representatives Votes In Support of Manufactured Home Financing
Amendment to Strip Access to Financing for Manufactured Housing Defeated in U.S. House of Representatives.
There is good news being provided by the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) regarding the industry’s quest to secure a legislative victory in changes to the restrictive Dodd/Frank Act.
The U.S. House of Representatives has again voted to support manufactured homes by defeating an amendment introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) that would have stripped language from the Fiscal Year 2018 Financial Services Appropriations bill.
Manufactured Home Financing Preserved
A major victory for consumers and our national manufactured housing industry, the language protecting manufactured home lending will remain in H.R. 5485. Otherwise known as the Financial Service and General Government Appropriations Act of 2017.
The language that survived the elimination attempt was modeled after the Preserving Access to Manufactured Act. This bill modifies the definition of “high cost” loans so that manufactured home loans are not unfairly swept under this designation simply due to their small size. It also excludes manufactured housing retailers and sellers from the definition of a loan originator, so long as they are only receiving compensation for the sale of the home and not engaged in financing the loans.
MHI members and state executive directors were instrumental in helping representatives understand the importance of this provision to their own constituents – more than 300 calls were made and over 1,200 emails were sent. MHI has worked long and hard to expand the bipartisan support for the bill – the vote received more Democrat votes than in previous years.
MHI has commended the bill’s sponsor Representative Andy Barr (R-KY) for strongly arguing against the Rep. Ellison amendment and has thanked the 33 House members who worked to include this language in the appropriations bill and the hard work of the 53 cosponsors of H.R. 1699, particularly Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Al), to educate their colleagues about the importance of the provision.
In addition to Rep.Barr, Blaine Luetkemeyer (R.Mo) and Tom Graves (R.GA) spoke out in strong opposition to the amendment. It is noteworthy that only person who spoke in favor of the amendment was Rep. Ellison.
MHI is determined to continue to work with Congress to get the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act to President Trump’s desk for his signature as soon as possible. The approach is multi-pronged and includes moving the language as part of larger legislative packages. Another recent example of MHI’s successful strategy is the inclusion of the language as a part of a financial reform package (H.R. 10), which passed the House of Representatives in June.
To date, MHI has succeeded in having the House of Representatives vote in favor of this language numerous times with bipartisan support. Additionally, the language is supported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors. National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions and more.
