Advocacy Update: Latest on Senate Housing Package and MBA’s Advocacy; MBA Letter to CFPB on Consumer Response Intake Form
Senate Continues Consideration of Housing Package – Including Single-family Rental Investor Ban
Last week, the full Senate continued its work to advance an evolving version of a bipartisan housing affordability package – while Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) continued their efforts to nail down final legislative text. The two votes taken this week (with margins of 84-6 and 90-8, respectively) mark the first of several procedural steps required before a floor vote on final Senate passage, which could come as soon as next week.
• The updated legislation, now called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, seeks to combine the bulk of the Senate’s ROAD to Housing Act – which was cleared unanimously by the Senate Banking Committee last summer – with elements of the recently (February 9th) House-passed H.R. 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act of 2025. The legislation includes 36 provisions from the Senate’s initial bill – many shared with H.R. 6644 – along with a provision limiting institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes.
• Read an initial substitute version of the bill text here, and a section-by-section of that initial substitute here.
Why it matters: MBA remains supportive of numerous provisions in the package that seek to expand and preserve housing supply, improve affordability and access, and bolster the oversight of major federal housing programs. Specifically, MBA is pleased about refinements to sections of the bill regarding appraisal-related lender liability and Rural Housing Service reforms designed to improve Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) financing options and facilitate USDA loan assumptions.
• However, MBA and other housing trade groups (see joint letter here) have serious concerns about Section 901, which would require firms owning more than 350 units to dispose of those holdings after seven years. As currently drafted, the provision would constrain capital for rental housing – especially for build-to-rent housing communities.
• MBA has stressed several key points regarding the investor ban for weeks, namely that any final legislation should avoid: inadvertently scoping in properties that have traditionally operated as multifamily rental communities, undermining housing supply and affordability by constraining capital for rental housing, limiting build-to-rent communities, and restricting mortgage servicers’ ability to acquire and dispose of REO properties—activities essential to maintaining housing supply and neighborhood stability.
What’s next: The White House and the Treasury Department have urged Congress to pass this bicameral housing package – with the institutional single-family rental investor ban included – as soon as possible. MBA remains engaged with the administration and lawmakers in both chambers of Congress – and on both sides of the political aisle – on key elements of the housing package, including requesting changes to the bill text to exempt Build-to-Rent housing (including existing units).
For more information, please contact Bill Killmer at (202) 557-2736, Rachel Kelley at (202) 557-2816, George Rogers at (202) 557-2797, and Jeremy Green at (202) 557-2849.
MBA Responds to CFPB RFI on the Consumer Response Intake Form
Last Monday, MBA submitted a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in response to a request for information (RFI) on the Bureau’s consumer response intake form. The Form is designed to aid consumers in the submission of complaints, inquiries, and feedback and to help the Bureau fulfill its statutory requirements.
• The CFPB requested comments on whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the CFPB, including whether the information will have practical utility and the accuracy of the CFPB’s estimate of the burden of the collection of information. Additionally, the Bureau asked for feedback on the validity of the methods and the assumptions used, ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected, and ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents.
Go deeper: MBA offered that the complaint database would be most effective if it functioned as a secondary escalation mechanism, available after a consumer has attempted to resolve the issue directly with the company.
MBA suggests several ways that the CFPB can improve the Complaint Database to best facilitate dispute resolutions between the company and consumer. This includes:
• Encouraging prior interaction with the company before a consumer submits a complaint;
• Verifying the identity of the consumer or third party submitting the complaint to reduce the number of false and incorrect complaints;
• Allowing longer extensions to respond to complex issues;
• Limiting the ability of consumers to file multiple complaints over the same issue;
• Excluding matters that are “resolved with an explanation” from counting as a “complaint;” and,
• Automating how the information from the consumer is processed and how it is given from the CFPB to the company.
What’s next: MBA will keep members informed about any regulatory efforts related to this RFI.
For more information, please contact Justin Wiseman at (202) 557- 2854 or Alisha Sears at (202) 557-2390.
VA Releases Draft Partial Claims and Loss Mitigation Waterfall Policies to Drafting Table
On Wednesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released draft updates to two chapters of the VA Servicer Handbook: Chapter 5 on the “Loss Mitigation Waterfall,” and Chapter 22 on “Partial Claims.” The drafts are available for comment on the Drafting Table through Wednesday, March 11.
• The update was enabled by VA’s new authority to issue a partial claims program as enacted by the MBA-advocated and supported “VA Home Loan Program Reform Act,” and amended by “Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026.”
Some highlights from the draft policies include:
• Only one partial claim (PC) will be offered over the life of the loan, inclusive of COVID-related partial claims and COVID-era refund modifications. A second PC will only be permitted if there is a Presidential Disaster Declaration.
• Borrowers will need to successfully complete a 3-month trial payment plan to obtain a modification or a partial claim. Borrowers who fail three workouts will need to provide additional documentation before receiving another workout.
• The new loss mitigation waterfall will put the PC beneath the traditional and 30-year loan modification options, and before the 40-year loan modification option. As drafted, a partial claim would be offered only if a 30-year modification results in a more than 15% increase in monthly payments.
• The VA will use a servicer advance model for administering its partial claims program, rather than the partial claim becoming a subordinate lien.
Why it matters: MBA and its members played a leading role in advocating for the VA to have partial claims authority, and have continuously supported changes that would provide veterans with the same loss mitigation options as other borrowers. The ability to offer a partial claim is a particularly important option for allowing borrowers to keep payments stable in a higher-interest-rate environment.
What’s next: MBA is engaging with members to formulate its responses to the draft policies.
For more information, please contact Kait Hildner at (202) 557-2933.
FHA Publishes Waiver on Early Payment Language for TPP Payments
On Wednesday, FHA posted a waiver on the language that restricted Trial Payment Plan (TPP) payments from being made more than 15 days before the month they are due.
• Borrowers are still required to make consecutive monthly payments over the applicable period to demonstrate their ability to sustain ongoing mortgage obligations. As a result, a single bulk payment covering multiple months does not satisfy this requirement.
Why it matters: MBA and its members have argued for this change as a high-priority update to FHA’s new loss mitigation waterfall to ensure borrowers are not penalized for making early payments.
What’s next: MBA will continue to engage members as they implement FHA’s loss mitigation waterfall.
For more information, please contact Kait Hildner at (202) 557-2933.
Upcoming MBA Education Webinars on Critical Industry Issues
MBA Education continues to deliver timely single-family programming that covers the spectrum of challenges, obstacles and solutions pertaining to our industry. Below, please see a list of upcoming and recent webinars – all complimentary to MBA members:
• Three Critical Mistakes that Doom Mortgage Bankers — March 10
• Comparing State Community Reinvestment Laws for Independent Mortgage Banks in NY, IL, and MA — March 11
• Expedite Your Prequalification Process – March 11
• Fraud Detection and Prevention in Non-Agency Lending – March 31
• How Secondary Marketing Powers Mortgage Lending – April 1
• Data & System Privacy in an AI World – April 2
• Drilling into Mortgage Accounting – April 22
• State of the Market: Tech Trends Shaping the Future of Mortgage Lending – May 14
MBA members can register for any of the above events and view recent webinar recordings by clicking here.
For more information, please contact David Upbin at (202) 557-2931.
