[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16792-16793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                 STATE LICENSING EFFICIENCY ACT OF 2015

  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2643) to direct the Attorney General to provide State 
officials with access to criminal history information with respect to 
certain financial service providers required to undergo State criminal 
background checks, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2643

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``State Licensing Efficiency 
     Act of 2015''.

     SEC. 2. BACKGROUND CHECKS.

       Section 1511(a) of the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 
     2008 (12 U.S.C. 5110(a)) is amended--
       (1) by inserting after ``State-licensed loan originators'' 
     the following: ``and other financial service providers''; and
       (2) by inserting before the period the following: ``or 
     other financial service providers''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) and the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on this bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2643, offered by my good friend and fellow Texan, 
Mr. Williams, is commonsense bipartisan legislation that will address 
the unintended consequences of the SAFE Act.
  This bill passed the Committee on Financial Services by a vote of 57-
0. Before I get into the details of this bill, I would like to thank 
the Texas Banking Commissioner, Charles Cooper, for his help and 
guidance as the committee considered this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2643 helps ensure a safe consumer financial 
marketplace by facilitating the licensing of certain financial services 
providers.
  Congress authorized the creation of the National Mortgage Licensing 
System and Registry, the NMLS, to provide a mechanism for licensing 
nationwide of financial services providers.
  The mission of NMLS is to improve interstate coordination information 
sharing among regulators, increasing efficiencies for industry and 
enhanced consumer protection.
  Currently, the greater utility NMLS is frustrated by the FBI's 
current statutory incapacity to enhance the platform by allowing 
additional financial service providers, other than mortgage loan 
originators, to be licensed under this system.
  When processing licenses, authorized State regulating agencies should 
have access to the most up-to-date criminal background information from 
the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For certain classes of financial 
providers, that is not occurring.
  The FBI should not be hindered from bringing the same efficiency to 
the criminal background checks of financial services personnel that the 
NMLS brought to the mortgage loan originators.
  By enabling the State license agencies to obtain these background 
checks, this bill will make the licensing process more efficient and 
potentially help qualified businesses get up and running more quickly.
  By enhancing the authority to process criminal history records for 
licensing of financial service providers beyond mortgage loan 
originators, this bill ensures that State financial regulators have the 
necessary tools to exercise effective oversight.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear that this bill only affects financial 
services businesses which are already required to conduct background 
checks and which cannot currently use the NMLS system by Federal law.
  H.R. 2643 has the potential to reduce the time it takes to complete 
background checks from anywhere between 2 days and 2 weeks to 24 hours 
under the expanded NMLS.
  At the end of 2014, there were 20,386 professionals registered in the 
system. Nationwide there was a need to conduct over 105,000 background 
checks outside of the system.
  It is estimated that this bill will reduce the number of background 
checks conducted outside the NMLS system by 80 percent and reduce the 
administrative and regulatory burden of State banking examiners to 
conduct them.
  In closing, I want to make two points. First, no authority to conduct 
background checks is created by this legislation. Second, no new 
licensing requirements are created by this legislation.
  I want to again thank the gentleman from Texas for his hard work.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                                       Committee on the Judiciary,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                 Washington, DC, October 27, 2015.
     Hon. Jeb Hensarling,
     Chairman, Committee on Financial Services, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Hensarling: I am writing concerning H.R. 
     2643, the ``State Licensing Efficiency Act of 2015'' which 
     was referred to your Committee as well as the Committee on 
     the Judiciary.
       As a result of your having consulted with us on provisions 
     in H.R. 2643 that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the 
     Committee on the Judiciary, I agree to discharge our 
     Committee from further consideration of this bill so that it 
     may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for 
     consideration. The Judiciary Committee takes this action with 
     our mutual understanding that by forgoing consideration of 
     H.R. 2643 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over 
     subject matter contained in this or similar legislation, and 
     that our Committee will be appropriately consulted and 
     involved as this bill or similar legislation moves forward. 
     Our Committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of 
     an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate 
     conference involving this or similar legislation, and asks 
     that you support any such request.
       I would appreciate your response to this letter confirming 
     this understanding, and would request that you include a copy 
     of this letter and your response in the Congressional Record 
     during the floor consideration of this bill. Thank you in 
     advance for your cooperation.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Bob Goodlatte,
                                                         Chairman.

[[Page 16793]]

     
                                  ____
                                  Committee on Financial Services,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                 Washington, DC, October 27, 2015.
     Hon. Bob Goodlatte,
     Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Goodlatte: Thank you for your October 27th 
     letter regarding H.R. 2643, the ``State Licensing Efficiency 
     Act of 2015.''
       I am most appreciative of your decision to forgo action on 
     H.R. 2643 so that it may move expeditiously to the House 
     floor. I acknowledge that although you are waiving action on 
     the bill, the Committee on the Judiciary is in no way waiving 
     its jurisdictional interest in this or similar legislation. 
     In addition, if a conference is necessary on this 
     legislation, I will support any request that your committee 
     be represented therein.
       Finally, I shall be pleased to include your letter and this 
     letter in our committee's report on H.R. 2643 and in the 
     Congressional Record during floor consideration of the same.
           Sincerely,


                                               Jeb Hensarling,

                                                         Chairman.

  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2643, and I am proud to 
be an original cosponsor of this legislation.
  I want to briefly say a few words about Mr. Williams' bill, H.R. 
2643, the State Licensing Efficiency Act of 2015.
  This legislation is extremely important. I am proud that this bill is 
a product of a bipartisan effort, a bipartisan effort that, in the last 
Congress, I was privileged to work with the Committee on Financial 
Services chair emeritus, Chairman Bachus, on this legislation.
  Unfortunately, the clock ran out on the last Congress. So I am very 
pleased that Mr. Williams has taken up this legislation and gotten it 
to the floor.
  It just makes all the sense in the world to streamline criminal 
background checks. I want to thank Mr. Williams and thank my colleague, 
Mr. Neugebauer, for championing this legislation.
  I urge adoption of this bill. I have no further speakers on this 
bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), the primary author of this 
bill.
  Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I 
would also like to thank my colleague, Ms. Moore, for her hard work on 
this. I appreciate it.
  H.R. 2643, the State Licensing Efficiency Act, will expand the 
State's ability to use a federally accepted registry, the Nationwide 
Multistate Licensing System, to expedite background checks.
  For many State-licensed financial service providers, the current 
background check process is inefficient, but this registry has a proven 
track record of being effective while also reducing regulatory burden.
  Under the SAFE Act, the current NMLS, developed by State banking 
commissioners, has been used to oversee the mortgage industry since 
2008. To date, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors has channeled 
over 1.3 million fingerprint checks of mortgage loan originators.
  Citing an absence in Federal law, the FBI has prevented its use to 
conduct background checks for other financial services, including money 
transmitters, debt collectors, pawnbrokers, and check cashers.
  Whereas a State wishing to conduct a criminal background check 
through traditional means may wait several weeks and sometimes even 
months for their response, NMLS communicates directly with the FBI and 
often receives the same results, as we have heard, in just 24 hours.
  H.R. 2643 would expand the current system to include those financial 
service providers who are already licensed by the State and require a 
Federal background check.
  The NMLS provides increased collaboration between State banking 
departments, reduces the risk of bad actors by preventing them from 
continuing to operate, and improves the safety and soundness of the 
financial system as a whole. In short, NMLS provides an added level of 
assurance to community banks that their business customers and vendors 
are operating legally.
  Supported by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, expanding the 
use of NMLS provides State regulators a secure and efficient means by 
which to conduct background checks on license applicants.
  I want to be clear. As we have heard in the past, this bill does not 
create any requirements for background checks or fingerprints, but 
greatly increases efficiency and transparency.
  In addition, by no means does this bill encourage States to require 
or mandate States to license or register any additional class of 
financial service providers.
  This act authorizes only State-licensed loan originators and other 
State-licensed financial service providers to be processed through NMLS 
for background checks authorized under the laws of the State. Simply 
put, by expanding its use, NMLS will save industry and, ultimately, the 
consumer money.
  At the end of 2014, there were around 20,386 professionals registered 
in the NMLS system. Those individuals, as we have heard, required over 
105,000 background checks outside the NMLS system. If our bill becomes 
law, we would reduce that number by 80 percent because we would be 
using one system instead of 50, saving industry $1.1 million by 
removing duplicate background checks.
  Finally, in my home State of Texas, the expansion of NMLS is 
supported by State Banking Commissioner Charles Cooper, who we talked 
about tonight. I want to take a moment to thank Commissioner Cooper for 
his leadership on this issue.
  In addition, I want to thank my own staff and the staff of CSBS, who 
have worked tirelessly to support our efforts in pushing this 
legislation through. Without them and the support of my colleagues on 
the committee and Chairman Hensarling, none of this would be possible. 
I thank Chairman Neugebauer, and I thank Ms. Moore.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 2643.
  Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 2643.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________