Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the efforts of my colleague and classmate Mr. Barr in attempting to address this issue. I appreciate the impact that the qualified mortgage rule has had in terms of mortgage lending for consumers and access to credit. It is especially true for our local and community bankers who have longtime personal relationships with individuals and families. It is these types of relationships that we need to encourage: the personal knowledge of people that banks and financial institutions lend to. I also appreciate the aspects of the bill intended to increase access for consumers that are just shy of the strict qualified mortgage standards, and I support the policy of allowing otherwise non-QM- compliant individuals having access to qualified mortgage products if lenders are willing to keep the loans on their books. My concern with this legislation, among others, is that it does not explicitly disallow the exotic mortgage products that were so much a part of the housing crisis. There are consumer protections that could improve this legislation in terms of how we allow safe borrower protections for banks and mortgage originators.…”