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Policy Institute's Chanelle Hardy Testifies Before House Subcommittee on Truth in Lending

This week, Chanelle Hardy testified on the impact of Truth in Lending Act violations before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity. In her testimony Ms. Hardy called the current mortgage disclosure rules “confusing and misleading” and said they had played a role in the current mortgage crisis.

The hearing entitled, “Mortgage Disclosures: How Do We Cut Red Tape for Consumers and Small Businesses?,” sought expert opinions on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) proposal to consolidate the complex maze of forms tied to the mortgage closing process.

Ms. Hardy's testimony made clear the role of mortgage servicer abuses in her statement, “[t]he CFPB’s proposal...to simplify and to consolidate the information required by TILA and RESPA represents a critical step toward combating and limiting the type of abuse and confusion that contributed, in no small part, to the current foreclosure crisis.”

Remarks by CFPB deputy Raj Date underscored the problems many homeowners face as a result of the inconsistent disclosure requirements.

Biggest Insurers to Keep Parts of Health Care Law Regardless of Supreme Court Ruling on ACA

No matter how the Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act this week, three of America’s largest insurance companies, UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and Aetna announced that they will continue to implement key portions of the law.

All three will continue to pay for preventive care without co-payments and insure adult children up to the age of 26. UnitedHealth Group and Humana also will keep other provisions, including no lifetime dollar limits on how much insurance policy pays out to cover claims, and no retroactive cancellation of a person’s coverage or pursuit of rescission except in limited instances. The nation’s second largest WellPoint, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield, has announced that it will wait until after the Supreme Court ruling to announce its plans.

Obama Administration Will Not Seek Deportation of Undocumented Youths

The Obama Administration announced a new policy that offers undocumented youth a temporary reprieve from deportation by the Department of Homeland Security. Instead these individuals will be made eligible for work authorization under the following criteria.

• Have entered the U.S. before the age of 16;
• Have lived in the U.S. for the last five consecutive years;
• Have graduated from or are currently in highschool, or
• Have received an honorable discharge from the military;
• Have not been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor crime, multiple misdemeanors or be a threat to national security;
• Are currently 30 years old or younger.

This new policy implements aspect of the DREAM Act, which if passed, would have given undocumented youths who finished college or served in the military a path to citizenship. The administration views this pol- icy shift as a stopgap until Congress addresses immigration reform.

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