Financial Services Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Financial Services Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act
This bill address access to financial services, diversity in various financial institutions and establishments, and other related issues.
Access to credit, mortgages, and banking services are expanded, including by
prohibiting discrimination with respect to credit transactions on the basis of an applicant's sexual orientation, gender identity, or location based on zip code or census tract;
establishing language translation requirements for residential mortgage applications; and
providing funding set-asides for minority lending institutions.
The bill expands the support of, and access to, minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions and establishes an impact bank designation for small institutions that predominately lend to low-income borrowers.
Further, the Federal Reserve Board must carry out its duties in a manner that supports the elimination of racial and ethnic disparities in employment, income, wealth, and access to affordable credit.
Additionally, the bill requires financial institutions to report information relating to diversity policies and lending practices.
Retail businesses must accept cash as a form of payment for sales in amounts less than $2,000 and are prohibited from charging cash-paying customers a higher price.
Finally, the bill commissions various reports and studies, including a report from the Government Accountability Office on public housing for the homeless.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House" stage on June 15, 2022. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 21, 2022: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 117th Congress (2021-22), 362 of the 15,242 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
MAXINE WATERS (D-CA) introduced it on April 14, 2021, and 5 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 5 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 14, 2021, 1975 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 1542 days ago, on June 21, 2022.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 117th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2023 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers