Reps. Williams, Hill, and Luetkemeyer Introduce the Preventing Racial Profiling in Lending Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25), along with Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) and Rep. French Hill (AR-02), introduced the Preventing Racial Profiling in Lending Act as part of a three bill package. This legislation would block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from mandating that loan officers guess the ethnicity of a loan applicant based on his or her appearance and last name, should this information not be voluntarily provided.

The following joint statement is attributable to Reps. Williams, Hill, and Luetkemeyer:

"The Biden Administration's new requirement imbeds racial profiling into our loan application processes. There is no amount of training that could make this concerning and racist policy workable for loan officers who are on the front lines providing critical capital for Main Street America. This policy would yield inaccurate, unusable data to the CFPB, and force every loan officer into a position of assuming the ethnicity of a borrower who does not disclose their demographic information. This Administration must stop pushing for unworkable, burdensome policies and focus their attention on providing more opportunities for America's small businesses."

Background:

This package of bills is a response to the Biden Administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) implementation of Dodd-Frank Section 1071, which attempts to gather information on small business loan applicants. As proposed, this rule would be very expensive for banks to implement, will reduce access to capital for small business, and stifle economic recovery after the pandemic. Together this package of bills will ensure some of the most harmful parts of the rule will never go into effect, and will prevent some of the mistakes from reappearing in future CFPB rulemakings.

The Independent Community of Bankers of America (ICBA) recently expressed their support of the legislation. You can read their letter here.

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Congressman Roger Williams is the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee and member of the House Financial Services Committee. He proudly represents the 25th Congressional District of Texas.