Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development Act

This Act may be cited as the Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development Act.

Section 104(b) of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4703(b)) is amended by adding to the end the following:

The Secretary of the Treasury (or a designee of the Secretary) shall, at the discretion of the chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and chairman of the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives, annually testify before such committees (or a subcommittee of such committees) regarding the operations of the Fund during the previous fiscal year.

.

It is the sense of Congress that the authority to guarantee bonds under section 114A of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4713a) (commonly referred to as the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program) provides community development financial institutions with a sustainable source of long-term capital and furthers the mission of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (established under section 104(a) of such Act (12 U.S.C. 4703(a))) to increase economic opportunity and promote community development investments for underserved populations and distressed communities in the United States.

Section 114A of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4713a) is amended—

(A) in subsection (c)(2)—

(i) by inserting outstanding before principal amount; and

(ii) by striking multiplied by an amount equal to the outstanding principal balance of issued notes or bonds,;

(B) by amending subsection (e)(2) to read as follows:

The Secretary may not guarantee any amount under the program equal to less than $25,000,000, but the total of all such guarantees in any fiscal year may not exceed $1,000,000,000.

(B) ; and

(C) in subsection (k), by striking September 30, 2014 and inserting the date that is the later of 4 years after the date of enactment of the Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development Act or December 31, 2030..

The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–325; 108 Stat. 2160) is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 114 the following:

.

Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue a report to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives on the effectiveness of the CDFI bond guarantee program established under section 114A of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4713a).

Section 113 of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4712) is amended—

(1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:

The Fund may provide funds to organizations for the purpose of—

(A) purchasing loans that are originated by community development financial institutions, loan participations, or interests therein from community development financial institutions;

(B) providing guarantees, loan loss reserves, or other forms of credit enhancement to promote liquidity for community development financial institutions; and

(C) otherwise enhancing the liquidity of community development financial institutions.

For purposes of this subsection, notwithstanding section 105(a)(9) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5305(a)(9)), funds provided pursuant to such Act shall be considered to be Federal Government funds.

(1) ;

(2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the following:

The selection of organizations to receive assistance and the amount of assistance to be provided to any organization under this section shall be at the discretion of the Fund and in accordance with criteria established by the Fund.

Organizations eligible to receive assistance under this section—

(A) shall have a primary purpose of promoting community development; and

(B) are not required to be community development financial institutions.

For the purpose of making an award of funds under this section, the Fund shall prioritize the selection of organizations that—

(A) demonstrate relevant experience or an ability to carry out the activities under this section, including experience leading or participating in loan purchase structures or purchasing or participating in the purchase of, assigning, or otherwise transferring, assets from community development financial institutions;

(B) demonstrate the capacity to increase the number or dollar volume of loan originations or expand the products or services of community development financial institutions, including by leveraging the award with private capital; and

(C) will use the funds to support community development financial institutions that represent broad geographic coverage or that serve borrowers that have experienced significant unmet capital or financial services needs.

(2) ;

(3) in subsection (c), in the first sentence—

(A) by striking $5,000,000 and inserting $20,000,000; and

(B) by striking during any 3-year period; and

(4) by adding at the end the following:

The Secretary may promulgate such regulations as may be necessary or appropriate to carry out the authorities or purposes of this section.

(4) .

Section 104A of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4703a) is amended by striking subsection (l) and inserting the following:

All funds received by the Secretary in connection with purchases made pursuant this section, including interest payments, dividend payments, and proceeds from the sale of any financial instrument, shall be deposited into the Fund and used—

(1) to provide financial assistance to organizations pursuant to section 113; and

(2) to provide financial and technical assistance pursuant to section 108, except that subsection (e) of that section shall be waived.

.

In this subsection, the terms community development financial institution and Fund have the meanings given the terms in section 103 of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4702).

Not later than 1 year after the date on which assistance is first provided under section 113 of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4712) pursuant to the amendments made by subsection (a) of this section, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to Congress a written report describing the use of the Fund for the 1-year period preceding the submission of the report for the purposes described in subsection (a)(1) of such section 113, as amended by subsection (a) of this section, which shall include, with respect to the period covered by the report—

(A) the total amount of—

(i) loans, loan participations, and interests therein purchased from community development financial institutions;

(ii) loans that support affordable housing construction; and

(iii) guarantees, loan loss reserves, and other forms of credit enhancement provided to community development financial institutions;

(B) the effect of the purchases and guarantees made by the Fund on the overall competitiveness of community development financial institutions; and

(C) the impact of the purchases and guarantees made by the Fund on the liquidity of community development financial institutions.

Section 502 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1472) is amended by adding at the end the following:

In this subsection—

(A) the term Alaska Native has the meaning given the term Native in section 3(b) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1602(b));

(B) the term appropriate congressional committees means—

(i) the Committee on Agriculture of the Senate;

(ii) the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate;

(iii) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate;

(iv) the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives;

(v) the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; and

(vi) the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives;

(C) the term community development financial institution has the meaning given the term in section 103 of the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 U.S.C. 4702);

(D) the term Indian Tribe has the meaning given the term Indian tribe in section 4 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4103);

(E) the term Native community development financial institution means an entity—

(i) that has been certified as a community development financial institution by the Secretary of the Treasury;

(ii) that is not less than 51 percent owned or controlled by members of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native communities, or Native Hawaiian communities; and

(iii) for which not less than 51 percent of the activities of the entity serve Indian Tribes, Alaska Native communities, or Native Hawaiian communities;

(F) the term Native Hawaiian has the meaning given the term in section 801 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4221); and

(G) the term priority Tribal land means—

(i) any land located within the boundaries of—

(I) an Indian reservation, pueblo, or rancheria; or

(II) a former reservation within Oklahoma;

(ii) any land not located within the boundaries of an Indian reservation, pueblo, or rancheria, the title to which is held—

(I) in trust by the United States for the benefit of an Indian Tribe or an individual Indian;

(II) by an Indian Tribe or an individual Indian, subject to restriction against alienation under laws of the United States; or

(III) by a dependent Indian community;

(iii) any land located within a region established pursuant to section 7(a) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1606(a));

(iv) Hawaiian Home Lands, as defined in section 801 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4221); or

(v) those areas or communities designated by the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior that are near, adjacent, or contiguous to reservations where financial assistance and social service programs are provided to Indians because of their status as Indians.

The purpose of this subsection is to—

(A) increase homeownership opportunities for Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Communities, and Native Hawaiian communities in rural areas; and

(B) provide capital to Native community development financial institutions to increase the number of mortgage transactions carried out by those institutions.

Of amounts appropriated to make direct loans under this section for each fiscal year, the Secretary may use not more than $50,000,000 to make direct loans to Native community development financial institutions in accordance with this subsection.

A Native community development financial institution desiring a loan under this subsection shall demonstrate that the institution—

(A) can provide the non-Federal cost share required under paragraph (6); and

(B) is able to originate and service loans for single family homes.

A Native community development financial institution that receives a loan pursuant to this subsection shall—

(A) use those amounts to make loans to borrowers—

(i) who otherwise meet the requirements for a loan under this section; and

(ii) who—

(I) are members of an Indian Tribe, an Alaska Native community, or a Native Hawaiian community; or

(II) maintain a household in which not less than 1 member is a member of an Indian Tribe, an Alaska Native community, or a Native Hawaiian community; and

(B) in making loans under subparagraph (A), give priority to borrowers described in that subparagraph who are residing on priority Tribal land.

A Native community development financial institution that receives a loan under this section shall be required to match not less than 20 percent of the amount received.

In the case of a loan for which amounts are used to make loans to borrowers described in paragraph (5)(B), the Secretary shall waive the non-Federal cost share requirement described in subparagraph (A) with respect to those loan amounts.

Each Native community development financial institution that receives a loan pursuant to this subsection shall submit an annual report to the Secretary on the lending activities of the institution using the loan amounts, which shall include—

(i) a description of the outreach efforts of the institution in local communities to identify eligible borrowers;

(ii) a description of how the institution leveraged additional capital to reach prospective borrowers;

(iii) the number of loan applications received, approved, and deployed;

(iv) the average loan amount;

(v) the number of finalized loans that were made on Tribal trust lands and not on Tribal trust lands; and

(vi) the number of finalized loans that were made on priority Tribal land and not priority Tribal land.

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this subsection, and every year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congressional communities a report that includes—

(i) a list of loans made to Native community development financial institutions pursuant to this subsection, including the name of the institution and the loan amount;

(ii) the percentage of loans made under this section to members of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native communities, and Native Hawaiian communities, respectively, including a breakdown of loans made to households residing on and not on Tribal trust lands; and

(iii) the average loan amount made by Native community development financial institutions pursuant to this subsection.

Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury shall conduct an evaluation of and submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the program under this subsection, which shall—

(i) evaluate the effectiveness of the program, including an evaluation of the demand for loans under the program; and

(ii) include recommendations relating to the program, including whether—

(I) the program should be expanded to such that all community development financial institutions may make loans under the program to the borrowers described in paragraph (5); and

(II) the set aside amount paragraph (3) should be modified in order to match demand under the program.

The Secretary shall make grants to Native community development financial institutions that receive a loan under this section to provide operational support and other related services to those institutions, subject to—

(i) the satisfactory performance, as determined by the Secretary, of a Native community development financial institution in carrying out this section; and

(ii) the availability of funding.

A Native community development financial institution that receives a loan under this section shall be eligible to receive a grant described in subparagraph (A) in an amount equal to 20 percent of the direct loan amount received by the Native community development financial institution under the program under this section as of the date on which the direct loan is awarded.

There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $1,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025, 2026, and 2027—

(A) to provide technical assistance to Native community development financial institutions—

(i) relating to homeownership and other housing-related assistance provided by the Secretary; and

(ii) to assist those institutions to perform outreach to eligible homebuyers relating to the loan program under this section; or

(B) to provide funding to a national organization representing Native American housing interests to perform outreach and provide technical assistance as described in clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, of subparagraph (A).

In addition to other available funds, the Secretary may use not more than 3 percent of the amounts made available to carry out this subsection for administration of the programs established under this subsection.

.