CoAMP Team works for you in Washington DC at the Legislative and Regulatory Conference

March 10-13^th 2013:   

Doug Braden, GA Co-Chair, Jayne Bail, GA Co-Chair and Adrienne Randol, President

Colorado had three delegates who attended the annual NAMB legislative conference and spent the entire day on Tuesday the 12^th and part of the day on Wednesday the 13^th meeting again, (this my 8^th consecutive year) with almost all of our Colorado Law makers in Washington DC. You can read more about the NAMB conference and the panel discussions with regulators and industry leaders on the CoAMP website on the GA site or go directly to the NAMB site for more details. Here is a recap of our meetings and the talking points we used to engage our members of Congress.

The Colorado Association has been working closely with Impact Mortgage Management and Advocacy Advisory Group, IMMAAG for the last four years and have been carrying a singularly focused message to slow down the rush to judgment, allow the SAFE Act time to work and take this perfect opportunity to bring the two 38 and 40 year old RESPA and TILA rules together and clarify the disclosure process. These complete legislative packages are also posted on the CoAMP site. 

This year we added, to support our points, the details of a recent survey taken from over 6,000 of the national membership group of IMMAAG supporting the position to have Congress revisit provisions of the Dodd Frank Act which are contained in our legislative packet. We used these ideas to help frame the issues this year as we presented House Bill HR-1077, by Congressman Huizenga from Michigan, which NAMB is supporting to clarify the 3% cap on fees for the proposed QM rule. 

The Bill, known as the Consumer Mortgage Choice Act, addresses the double counting of originator compensation and premiums in the current rule and will level the playing field for brokers and lenders which will serve to make shopping for a mortgage easier for consumers. As of today’s date we now have a total of 13 co-sponsors and the bill has been assigned to the House Financial Services Committee as of March 12th. The Colorado Government Affairs committee will continue to support these ideas here in district and ask you to join us by following the steps in our call to action. Please contact your Congressmen today to ask their support for our industry and consumers in Colorado.

Below is a brief description of our meeting schedule in DC. Thank you for your help with our efforts and please pass along these ideas with others who share your concerns and passions to help bring these positive changes to the forefront of our lawmakers.

TUESDAY March  12^th

We met for Breakfast to go over our lobby packets and confirm attendance to our meetings; Ryan Riesterer who previously worked for the legal department of NAMB agreed to join us for our 5 pm meeting with Congressman and House Financial Services Committee member, Ed Perlmutter.

First appointment was with Congressman Mike Coffman who was in attendance and supports us fully, Mike has always supported our positions and would help us to advance our ideas of amending the Dodd Frank Act given the opportunity.  I will follow up with him and his lead legislative assistance Stephen Beck to reinforce our request for their support for HR-1077.

Next meeting was with Congressman Scott Tipton. He had not yet arrived back to DC so we met with his staffers Jeff Small and Eli Leino, Scott is a supporter of our positions and has expressed a need to revisit Dodd Frank as well; we asked for their support of HR-1077.

We did not have appointments scheduled for either Doug Lamborn or Diana DeGette but found that our drop ins were welcome. We spent time with Tommy Walker from DeGette’s office and Lucas Miller from Lamborn’s and will send follow up’s to them also. We had a quick bite of lunch in the house office buildings then went on to Congressman Jared Polis office where we met with Eve Lieberman who was also interested in hearing more from us. I am in Jared’s district so I will follow up with her and watch when he’ll be in town next to get out and see him again.

Then we focused in on our most important meeting with Congressman Ed Perlmutter who has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee since arriving in Washington in 2004 and the Congressman was one of the first members of Congress I ever met. Ed has always taken time for us personally and although he will not consider any repeal of portions of the Dodd Frank Act (part of our suggestions in our Colorado packages) he did show great consideration for supporting the bill, HB-1077 and personally directed his staffer Noah Marine to “get someone from the CFPB over here to look over this QM rule”. I have already sent a request for a follow up meeting with Ed in district in the following days to let him know what progress has been made and to see where we might help with the discussions with the CFPB. This was one of the greatest victories I have ever experienced at these lobby day conferences and look forward to advancing this further with Mr. Perlmutter’s office.

WEDNESDAY March 13^th

I went by the Coffee Colorado breakfast meeting and although I did not get to meet with Senator Michael Bennett, I did spend time with one of his lead staffers at the coffee and left my packet for Brian Appel who we have met on every trip. We were not able to meet with Mark Udall’s office as they were moving his office on the 12^th we did forward our information to Adam Jones (Udall’s staffer) who also has met us on every other trip. Since this Bill is not yet bound for the Senate, time is early to ask for the support of our Senators.

My final meeting was with Congressman Cory Gardner who met with me in person and has always been very supportive of our efforts. With Cory and Mike Coffman sitting on the House Small Business Committee we will stay in close touch with them both and will ask them to contact Ed’s office and ask for his support of the bill in HFS Committee.

All in all it was a successful trip just by the response from Ed Perlmutter. It remains the Colorado Government Affairs committee’s task to continue our efforts, send out thank you letters and additional personal follow up, with those members who can and will support our cause. Again please join our efforts with our Call to Action and bring other concerned future members to help support our cause. 

Visit CoAMP.org to learn more.

Douglas L Braden

CoAMP GA Co-Chair

And 2008 Past President