I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 166
To establish an Office of Fair Lending Testing to test for compliance with
the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to strengthen the Equal Credit Oppor-
tunity Act, to ensure that persons injured by discriminatory practices,
including organizations that have diverted resources to address discrimi-
nation and whose mission has been frustrated by illegal acts, can seek
relief under such Act and to provide for criminal penalties for violating
such Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. G
REENof Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To establish an Office of Fair Lending Testing to test for
compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to
strengthen the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to ensure
that persons injured by discriminatory practices, includ-
ing organizations that have diverted resources to address
discrimination and whose mission has been frustrated
by illegal acts, can seek relief under such Act and to
provide for criminal penalties for violating such Act, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair Lending for All 2
Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. OFFICE OF FAIR LENDING TESTING. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established within 5
the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection an Office 6
of Fair Lending Testing (hereinafter referred to as the 7
‘‘Office’’). 8
(b) D
IRECTOR.—The head of the Office shall be a 9
Director, who shall— 10
(1) be appointed to a 5-year term by, and re-11
port to, the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Fi-12
nancial Protection; 13
(2) appoint and fix the compensation of such 14
employees as are necessary to carry out the duties 15
of the Office under this section; and 16
(3) provide an estimated annual budget to the 17
Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Pro-18
tection. 19
(c) C
IVILSERVICEPOSITION.—The position of the 20
Director shall be a career position within the civil service. 21
(d) T
ESTING.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Office, in consultation 23
with the Attorney General and the Secretary of 24
Housing and Urban Development, shall conduct 25
testing of compliance with the Equal Credit Oppor-26
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•HR 166 IH
tunity Act by creditors, through the use of individ-1
uals who, without any bona fide intent to receive a 2
loan, pose as prospective borrowers for the purpose 3
of gathering information. 4
(2) R
EFERRAL OF VIOLATIONS .—If, in carrying 5
out the testing described under paragraph (1), the 6
Office believes a person has violated the Equal Cred-7
it Opportunity Act, the Office shall refer such viola-8
tion in writing to the Attorney General for appro-9
priate action. 10
(e) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.—Section 707 of the 11
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691f) is 12
amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘In addition, 13
each report of the Bureau shall include an analysis of the 14
testing carried out pursuant to section 2 of the Fair Lend-15
ing for All Act, and each report of the Bureau and the 16
Attorney General shall include a summary of criminal en-17
forcement actions taken under section 706A.’’. 18
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON CREDIT DISCRIMINATION. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subsection (a) of section 701 of 20
the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691) is 21
amended to read as follows: 22
‘‘(a) It shall be unlawful to discriminate against any 23
person, with respect to any aspect of a credit trans-24
action— 25
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‘‘(1) on the basis of race, color, religion, na-1
tional origin, sex (including sexual orientation and 2
gender identity), marital status, or age (provided the 3
applicant has the capacity to contract); 4
‘‘(2) on the basis of the person’s ZIP Code, or 5
census tract; 6
‘‘(3) because all or part of the person’s income 7
derives from any public assistance program; or 8
‘‘(4) because the person has in good faith exer-9
cised any right under the Consumer Credit Protec-10
tion Act.’’. 11
(b) R
EMOVAL OFCERTAINREFERENCES TOCREDI-12
TORS ANDAPPLICANTS ANDDEFINITIONADDED.—The 13
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.) 14
is amended— 15
(1) in section 701(b)— 16
(A) by striking ‘‘applicant’’ each place 17
such term appears and inserting ‘‘person’’; and 18
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘appli-19
cant’s’’ each place such term appears and in-20
serting ‘‘person’s’’; 21
(2) in section 702— 22
(A) by redesignating subsection (g) as sub-23
section (h); and 24
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(B) by inserting after subsection (f) the 1
following: 2
‘‘(g) The term ‘aggrieved person’ includes any person 3
who— 4
‘‘(1) claims to have been injured by a discrimi-5
natory credit practice; or 6
‘‘(2) believes that such person will be injured by 7
a discriminatory credit practice.’’; 8
(3) in section 704A— 9
(A) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘ap-10
plicant’’ each place such term appears and in-11
serting ‘‘aggrieved person’’; and 12
(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘appli-13
cant’’ and inserting ‘‘aggrieved person’’; 14
(4) in section 705— 15
(A) by striking ‘‘the applicant’’ each place 16
such term appears and inserting ‘‘persons’’; and 17
(B) in subsection (a)— 18
(i) by striking ‘‘a creditor to take’’ 19
and inserting ‘‘taking’’; and 20
(ii) by striking ‘‘applicant’’ and insert-21
ing ‘‘person’’; and 22
(5) in section 706— 23
(A) by striking ‘‘creditor’’ each place such 24
term appears and inserting ‘‘person’’; 25
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(B) by striking ‘‘creditor’s’’ each place 1
such term appears and inserting ‘‘person’s’’; 2
(C) by striking ‘‘creditors’’ each place such 3
term appears and inserting ‘‘persons’’; and 4
(D) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘appli-5
cant’’ and inserting ‘‘aggrieved person’’. 6
SEC. 4. CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE 7
EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY ACT. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Equal Credit Opportunity 9
Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 10
section 706 the following: 11
‘‘§ 706A. Criminal penalties 12
‘‘(a) I
NDIVIDUALVIOLATIONS.—Any person who 13
knowingly and willfully violates this title shall be fined not 14
more than $50,000, or imprisoned not more than 1 year, 15
or both. 16
‘‘(b) P
ATTERN ORPRACTICE.— 17
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any person who engages in 18
a pattern or practice of knowingly and willfully vio-19
lating this title shall be fined not more than 20
$100,000 for each violation of this title, or impris-21
oned not more than twenty years, or both. 22
‘‘(2) P
ERSONAL LIABILITY OF EXECUTIVE OFFI -23
CERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE BOARD .—Any execu-24
tive officer or director of the board of an entity who 25
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knowingly and willfully causes the entity to engage 1
in a pattern or practice of knowingly and willfully 2
violating this title (or who directs another agent, 3
senior officer, or director of the entity to commit 4
such a violation or engage in such acts that result 5
in the director or officer being personally unjustly 6
enriched) shall be— 7
‘‘(A) fined in an amount not to exceed 100 8
percent of the compensation (including stock 9
options awarded as compensation) received by 10
such officer or director from the entity— 11
‘‘(i) during the time period in which 12
the violations occurred; or 13
‘‘(ii) in the one to three year time pe-14
riod preceding the date on which the viola-15
tions were discovered; and 16
‘‘(B) imprisoned for not more than 5 17
years.’’. 18
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 19
for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 20
et seq.) is amended by inserting after the item relating 21
to section 706 the following: 22
‘‘706A. Criminal penalties.’’.
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SEC. 5. REVIEW OF LOAN APPLICATIONS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle C of the Consumer Fi-2
nancial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5531 et seq.) 3
is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 1038. REVIEW OF LOAN APPLICATIONS. 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Bureau shall carry out re-6
views of loan applications and the process of taking loan 7
applications being used by covered persons to ensure such 8
applications and processes do not violate the Equal Credit 9
Opportunity Act or any other Federal consumer financial 10
law. 11
‘‘(b) P
ROHIBITION ANDENFORCEMENT.—If the Bu-12
reau determines under subsection (a) that any loan appli-13
cation or process of taking a loan application violates the 14
Equal Credit Opportunity Act or any other Federal con-15
sumer financial law, the Bureau shall— 16
‘‘(1) prohibit the covered person from using 17
such application or process; and 18
‘‘(2) take such enforcement or other actions 19
with respect to the covered person as the Bureau de-20
termines appropriate.’’. 21
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 22
in section 1 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 23
Consumer Protection Act is amended by inserting after 24
the item relating to section 1037 the following: 25
‘‘Sec. 1038. Review of loan applications.’’.
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SEC. 6. MORTGAGE DATA COLLECTION. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 304(b)(4) of the Home 2
Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (12 U.S.C. 2803(b)(4)) 3
is amended by striking ‘‘census tract, income level, racial 4
characteristics, age, and gender’’ and inserting ‘‘the appli-5
cant or borrower’s ZIP Code, census tract, income level, 6
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, 7
sexual orientation, gender identity, and age’’. 8
(b) P
ROTECTION OFPRIVACYINTERESTS.—Section 9
304(h)(3)(A) of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 10
1975 (12 U.S.C. 2803(h)(3)(A)) is amended— 11
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 12
(2) by redesignating clause (ii) as clause (iii); 13
and 14
(3) by inserting after clause (i) the following: 15
‘‘(ii) ZIP Code, census tract, and any 16
other category of data described in sub-17
section (b)(4), as the Bureau determines to 18
be necessary to satisfy the purpose de-19
scribed in paragraph (1)(E), and in a man-20
ner consistent with that purpose; and’’. 21
Æ
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