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Last week, I attended the inaugural meeting of my Housing Advisory Council.  Home builders, realtors, and lenders from across the Second District shared their experiences and observations with me in a round table discussion in Clayton. 

I heard story after story about individuals and businesses with good credit ratings and established relationships with their local banks being unable to get loans or lines of credit due to the stringent requirements of Dodd-Frank.  Without accessible financing, builders are unable to build houses.  Some builders told me how the economy had ravaged their businesses – requiring them to lay off employees, drain their cash reserves and exhaust credit lines to stay in business. 

Many of those in attendance told me they did not want the government to become more involved in their industry. Instead, they wanted the government to reduce the regulation and red tape that is hampering growth.  As one gentleman noted, he just wanted the government to “get out of the way.”

If we want to get serious about the housing crisis, we must quickly reverse the credit problem. I’m proud to say I’m a cosponsor of legislation to fix this. H.R. 1755 - the “Home Construction Lending Regulatory Improvement Act of 2011” will remove these burdensome regulations and get banks lending again. 

I’ve also opposed Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) – a provision of Dodd-Frank that would require homebuyers to put 20% down – which would put homeownership out of reach for most Americans.  This mandate places undue burdens on consumers and harms our fragile economic recovery. I will continue to work with businesses around our community on solutions that will help our job creators start hiring again.