Housing for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLOOD. Madam Speaker, I rise along with my colleague, Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, to raise a particular point that the Department of the Treasury should consider when evaluating the congressional intent as it relates to Section 1001 of this piece of legislation, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Mr. Cleaver and I are both original cosponsors of this piece of legislation and were intimately involved in the drafting of the bill.

It is the intent of Congress that entities providing for the temporary acquisition of homes during employer sponsored relocation home sale programs be exempt from the definition of large institutional investor in Section 1001 of this Act.

These entities provide a service to the private sector, government agencies and their employees by facilitating worker relocations. These properties remain available to American homebuyers; they are not removed from the homeownership market and turned into rental properties. Additionally, these transactions are in service of an employee relocation, not for investment purposes. As such, it is appropriate to exclude them from the definition of a large institutional investor pursuant to the Act.

Additionally, in this bill Congress grants the Department of the Treasury the authority to issue regulations aimed at carrying out the purposes of this section, avoiding market disruptions, and protecting consumers from harm. Under that authority, Treasury should issue rules clarifying the meaningful financial support required for homeownership programs under subparagraph (D). It is the intent of Congress that any meaningful financial support from the investor should include consideration of the physical condition of the home. It is also the intent of Congress that any homeownership program under subparagraph (D) must involve properties that are habitable and shall not impose significant repair obligations on the consumer before a deed is granted to them. Consumers attempting to purchase these homes should not be obligated to pay for significant repairs unless they have a deed in their name and full ownership rights, to prevent transactions that are built to fail.

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