[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 126 (Wednesday, August 5, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6389-S6390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HEITKAMP:

[[Page S6389]]

  S. 1974. A bill to require the Bureau of Consumer Financial 
Protection to amend its regulations relating to qualified mortgages, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, the mid-2000s housing bubble was fueled 
by cheap access to credit and unsound, deceptive, and sometimes 
fraudulent mortgage lending practices. Borrowers were offered risky, 
high-cost loans they could neither afford nor understand by originators 
who abandoned traditional underwriting process, accepted loan 
applications with little or no documentation, and directly profited 
from selling unsustainable loans wholesale. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street 
Reform and Consumer Protection Act contains many necessary and 
important reforms to the mortgage origination industry to prevent 
future abuses. However, the law is complex and has, unintentionally, 
imposed onerous, one-size-fits-all rules on community banks and local 
financial institutions that originate mortgages to entrepreneurs and 
farmers.
  For over a decade, and under supervision of the Federal Housing 
Finance Agency, the Federal Home Loan Banks, FHLBanks, have operated a 
set of mortgage programs that ensure small financial institutions can 
expand access to credit and originate affordable mortgages in their 
communities. The Mortgage Partnership Finance program--and the similar 
Mortgage Purchase Program--provides members an alternative secondary 
mortgage market. A FHLBank purchases a mortgage and manages the 
liquidity, interest rate, and prepayment risks while the originating 
bank member assumes some credit risk for the loans.
  The FHLB mortgage programs' guidelines prior to the passage of the 
Dodd-Frank Act often met or exceeded the standards that we now know as 
Qualified Mortgage, QM, but the requirements were flexible and not 
unduly burdensome. QM status provides originators the legal and 
regulatory certainty they need to expand safe access to affordable 
mortgages. The FHLBanks have since harmonized their standards with QM, 
but some member banks struggle to comply due to the strict 
requirements, such as Appendix Q, for assessing a consumer's ability to 
repay. For example, the general QM option in some circumstances 
prevents community banks and credit unions that originate mortgages to 
the self-employed from selling those loans to the FHLBanks. This 
outcome is problematic because the FHLBank System is the only avenue 
for mortgage resale for many small financial institutions; without the 
ability to resell to the FHLBanks, credit availability is constrained 
in communities served by these institutions.
  Small financial institutions that participate in the FHLBank System 
engage in relationship lending--their customers are their neighbors, 
their youth sports coaches, their community leaders--and they should 
not be required to comply with burdensome regulations designed to clamp 
down on unsound mortgage lending practices at large institutions. The 
legislation I am introducing today, the Relationship Lending 
Preservation Act, would allow these financial institutions to continue 
serving farmers and entrepreneurs while ensuring the safety and 
soundness of the mortgage origination system. The bill simply requires 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB, to establish a distinct 
QM option for loans eligible to be purchased by a FHLBank or loans 
participating in a credit risk sharing program established by a FHLBank 
pursuant to regulations issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. 
This legislation is supported by The Council of FHLBanks and others in 
the financial community.
  In practice, the bill will provide QM status to loans sold to the 
FHLBanks that would have otherwise qualified for the general QM option 
except for the income and debt rules. Institutions would still be 
required, by FHLBank regulation, to adhere to underwriting and 
documentation requirements. The legislation provides parity between the 
FHLBanks and Fannie and Freddie, and it mirrors a request by the 
FHLBanks to the CFPB to modify QM to accommodate sales to the FHLBanks. 
Just as mortgages sold to Fannie and Freddie qualify for QM status, 
participants of the FHLBank mortgage programs should be eligible for 
QM.
  It is important to note that this legislation is narrowly tailored to 
benefit truly community financial institutions--the new option is 
limited to the commonly accepted definition of community banks, those 
institutions with less than $10 billion in assets--and does not 
increase systemic risk. Sixty-seven percent of participants in the FHLB 
mortgage programs are institutions with less than $500 million in total 
assets--these are the smallest of the small lenders. Additionally, the 
FHLB mortgage programs require lenders to retain a portion of the 
loan's credit risk. This ``skin in the game'' provision ensures 
originators are making quality loans that will be repaid; in fact, 
loans participating in the FHLB mortgage programs have a 1.47 percent 
90-day delinquency rate, less than 2/3 the national average of 2.29 
percent.
  Community-based financial institutions are central to promoting 
growth and economic prosperity in small and rural communities 
throughout North Dakota and the Nation. These institutions were not the 
cause of the housing and financial crises and should not be subject to 
regulations meant for large-scale mortgage-origination institutions. 
The Relationship Lending Preservation Act will ensure small financial 
institutions can continue to do what they do best: serve their 
communities by providing affordable mortgages. I urge my colleagues to 
support this bill--community financial institutions, and the families 
they serve, are too important for our country's future.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Boxer, Ms. 
        Cantwell, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Heitkamp, Ms. 
        Hirono, Ms. Klobuchar, Mrs. McCaskill, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. 
        Shaheen, Ms. Stabenow, and Ms. Warren):
  S. 1975. A bill to establish the Sewall-Belmont House National 
Historic Site as a unit of the National Park System, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the urgent need to 
authorize the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum as part of the National 
Park Service.
  Sewall-Belmont is a critical piece of our Nation's history. It was 
the home of Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, whose 
perseverance brought the movement for women's suffrage over the finish 
line with the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. 
Today it helps tell the story of one of the most important chapters in 
our Nation's history by highlighting the political strategies and 
techniques of Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, which became 
the blueprint for civil rights organizations throughout the 20th 
century.
  The Sewall-Belmont House was more than a house--it was a home to 
great minds and leaders, thanks to the generosity of women like Alva 
Belmont. It was a place where women could live, rest, and work without 
fear of harassment while they fought boldly for the ballot.
  In the 1970s, when they were threatening to tear down this building 
to make way for the Senate offices, Pat Schroeder and the women of the 
House rallied to save it. Now it is a museum where today's generation 
can learn about the courageous women who came before them. This house 
has always been the scene of making history, and has always stood for 
women's empowerment.
  However, today Sewall-Belmont is in dire need of federal support if 
it is to continue to serve the public. While the National Woman's Party 
has been successfully operating the House and managing its historic 
collection, it has been forced to cut back on public tours, research 
requests, and educational programs due to the growing capital needs of 
managing an aging building.
  Sewall-Belmont is a National Historic Landmark, listed on the 
National Register of Historic Places, and one of four designations 
supported by the Save America's Treasures legislation. The National 
Park Service recently completed a feasibility study which concluded 
that Sewall-Belmont's deep

[[Page S6390]]

historical significance and unique contribution to our Nation's history 
warrants its full inclusion into the National Park Service. This would 
not only give it the resources it needs to continue to educate the 
public, but would send a powerful message that women's history is an 
important part of our Nation's history.
  Women fought for decades against great onslaught to secure the right 
to vote. One hundred and sixty-seven years ago, in July 1848, the 
first-ever women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls. This 
convention was the beginning of one of the greatest social movements of 
all time, kicking off the actions of the first generation of 
suffragists and making women's suffrage a national topic.
  At this convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott stood up 
to meet the challenges of their time. They mobilized and they organized 
the American women's rights movement. They called for a convention; 
they called for action; they made history; they changed history. And 
that revolution keeps on going.
  In the 20th century, Alice Paul took the lead in the women's suffrage 
movement. In 1916, she formed the National Woman's Party which would 
fight for suffrage until the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was 
finally enacted in 1920--long overdue.
  Alice Paul was a groundbreaker and a changemaker, risking arrest and 
inhumane treatment so the women of America could be part of a true 
democracy. With their banners and sashes, Alice Paul led the Iron Jawed 
Angels marching on Washington to President Wilson's White House. Her 
Silent Sentinels stood in rain, sleet, and snow as daily reminders of 
America's conscience. They called for women's right to vote at a time 
when women didn't have a voice. Their cause captivated the nation! With 
each step they took, they marched toward a future where women weren't 
just able to vote, but were on the ballot.
  Wouldn't Alice Paul be so proud to see twenty women in the United 
States Senate? I'm so proud to be one of them. The women of the Senate 
are changing history by changing the tide and changing the tone. When I 
arrived in the Senate in 1986, I was the first Democratic woman elected 
in her own right, and the sixteenth woman to serve. There are more 
women serving right this minute, today--fourteen Democrats and six 
Republicans--than had served in all of American history when I arrived.
  I am so proud of all of the accomplishments made by the women of the 
Senate. But we didn't get here by ourselves. Not a single one of us 
would be here without Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party. That 
is why it is so important that we not only preserve the place where 
they fought for women's full inclusion in society, the Sewall-Belmont 
House, but elevate it to its rightful spot among our Nation's most 
important national treasures.
  There are very few sites in the National Park System that celebrate 
women's history. I am proud that Maryland is home to one of those sites 
with the newly authorized Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National 
Historical Park in Cambridge. But it is not enough.
  Today, women have the right to vote and the right to be on the 
ballot. But we have so much more to accomplish to become fully equal 
members of society. It is critical that we remind today's generation of 
women and men of this long and important history so that we can keep in 
mind the lessons learned from these movements as we march toward full 
equality. As I serve my last term in the United States Senate, there is 
nothing more important to me than preserving the legacy of this fight.
                                 ______