The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) urges all Representatives to vote “YES” on S.J. Res. 32, introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and passed by a bipartisan group of senators in October, disapproving of the rule submitted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) relating to the “Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act” (Regulation B).
This rulemaking imposes burdensome costs and regulations on taxpayers and small businesses, raising the price of small business credit and discouraging lending to small businesses.
The finalized rule requires lenders who make 100 small business loans or more in each of the two preceding calendar years to collect data on their lending practices. For businesses that make $5 million or less in gross annual revenue, lenders must collect data from 21 fields, including the loan’s purpose; the race, gender, and ethnicity of the businesses’ owners; if the business is women-owned, minority-owned, and/or LGBT-owned; and in-depth loan pricing details, potentially limiting credit availability to small businesses.
Some lenders have as little as ten months to prepare for collecting this data. The extent of the data collection outlined by the new rules and the low 100-loan threshold mean compliance would significantly burden the banking and loan industries and restrict access to credit, especially on smaller regional and community banks.
This vote will be included in NTU’s annual Rating of Congress, and a “YES” vote will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
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If you have any questions, please contact Grant Carlson at gcarlson@ntu.org.