Our Government Affairs committee is focused on state and federal legislation that will affect our industry and seeks policy solutions that will help to expand and sustain opportunities for homeownership for hard working families and individuals. The committee follows bills that are introduced in the Arizona State Legislature and the United States Congress and Senate. This website will keep you, the membership, updated on the bills introduced and the status of those bills. The current versions of all of these bills can be found at www.azleg.gov.
AMLA’s Government Affairs agenda also involves our primary regulator, the Department of Financial Institutions.
Meet AMLA’s Lobbyist – Tom Farley
Tom Farley has more than 18 years of experience in non-profit administration, lobbying and government relations in both the private and public sectors. Prior to co-founding WPI, Mr. Farley was the CEO and lobbyist for the Arizona Association of Realtors (AAR) – the largest trade association in Arizona. He also ran the state’s largest and most successful political action committee.
Mr. Farley has been appointed to several state commissions and committees on issues of land use, water, taxation and regulation impacting the real estate industry and property owners. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and the Public Affairs Professionals Association.
Arizona Mortgage Lenders Association
Federal Legislative Update
Over three days in March when the cherry trees were in very early but beautiful full bloom, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) hosted approximately 350 representatives from 42 states at the State and Local Conference and the National Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC to discuss housing and mortgage financing issues and policies with our elected members of Congress.
The Arizona delegation of eight, (of which several members were not current AMLA members but we are working on that) were led by Hill veteran and Arizona Ambassador to MBA Kelly Powers, our AMLA VP of Advocacy. Our current AMLA President Don Hagan was also in attendance and was invited to an off-site meeting with Senator Kelly. The Arizona group was able to meet personally with Senator Sinema and Senator Kelly, along with staff members for Representatives Andy Biggs, Ruben Gallego, Juan Ciscomani, Greg Stanton, and David Schweikert.
There were many different talking points that are too numerous to cover in this update but three of the key concerns are listed below:
H.R. 7297 and S. 3502, MBA-supported proposals that would ban the use of mortgage credit “trigger leads” in all but a limited number of scenarios. This legislation would restrict the use of trigger leads to limited circumstances during a real estate transaction. These limited uses include when the entity wanting to use a trigger lead provides certification that either: (1) the consumer has authorized the solicitation; (2) the entity originated the consumer’s current residential mortgage loan; (3) it is the servicer of the consumer’s current residential mortgage loan; or (4) it is an insured depository institution or insured credit union and holds a deposit account for the consumer to whom the consumer report relates.
We asked our Arizona Representatives and Senators to contact the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (“the Banking Agencies”) to raise concerns about the adverse impact on the mortgage market of their proposed rulemaking to update capital requirements for banks with assets of $100 billion or more (the so-called BASEL III “Endgame” proposal). Absent sufficient changes recommended by MBA, the proposal poses unwarranted risks to housing and real estate markets and the continued flow of mortgage credit to consumers.
Remote Online Notarization (RON) The House passed H.R. 1059 in 2023. We have asked our Arizona Senators to co-sponsor and support passage of S. 1212, the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act (“the SECURE Notarization Act”) to enable the nationwide use of RON. This legislation will lower costs and expedite mortgage closings by expanding the ability to securely execute real estate closing documents online.
AMLA is pleased that we are afforded the opportunity to walk the Hill and bring matters of concern to our industry to the policy makers in Washington. It is all too easy to complain but take no action about the changes and challenges that we face in our daily work lives. However, we all have a voice and we can use it to affect change for the greater good. If you have an interest in joining the AMLA Advocacy Committee, please contact Kelly Powers for more information at kpowers@altitudehomeloans.com