Mortgage Action Alliance Issues Immediate ‘Call to Action’: Support Nationwide Use of RON
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s grassroots advocacy arm, the Mortgage Action Alliance, issued a Call to Action Monday supporting bipartisan legislation that would allow notaries in all states to perform Remote Online Notarization transactions.
H.R. 3962, the SECURE Notarization Act of 2021, was introduced by Reps. Madeline Dean, D-Pa., and Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., with 31 co-sponsors. It is a companion bill to S. 1625, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
MBA Senior Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs Bill Killmer asked Mortgage Action Alliance members to contact their U.S. Representative immediately and urge her or him to vote in support of H.R. 3962 when it comes before the full House for debate and floor consideration, likely this week.
“Just last week, the full House Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 3962 by an overwhelming vote of 56-0 during a July 20 ‘markup’,” Killmer said. “Consequently, on Tuesday the bill will be debated and voted on by the full U.S. House under suspension of the rules – a process reserved for measures expected to pass the House by at least a two-thirds majority.”
H.R. 3962 requires tamper-evident technology in electronic notarizations and provides fraud prevention using multi-factor authentication for identity proofing and audiovisual recording of the notarial act. To date, forty-one states have enacted their own laws to enable the use of RON. The federal legislation would complement those existing state laws, while allowing individual states the flexibility and freedom to implement their own RON standards.
Killmer noted that as a direct result of MBA’s outreach and advocacy, H.R. 3962’s minimum standards for RON are consistent with those provided in the MBA-ALTA model state RON bill and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) RON Standards.
“A robust floor vote in favor of H.R. 3962 will achieve two key objectives,” Killmer said. First, the measure will clear the full House with strong momentum, and second, it will help create a pathway for MBA and its coalition partners to garner further support for the measure’s Senate companion, S. 1625 – while pushing for avenues to have the bill potentially considered by the full Senate before the close of the 117th Congress.
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