Introduced in House — H.R. 941

119th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 941

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 4, 2025

Mr. Hill of Arkansas (for himself, Mr. Meuser, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Huizenga, Mr. Timmons, Mr. Moore of North Carolina, and Mr. Williams of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

A BILL

To amend the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to provide for an effective date and a temporary safe harbor for compliance with certain small business lending data collection rules, and for other purposes.

Section 1. Short title

This Act may be cited as the Small Lenders Exempt from New Data and Excessive Reporting Act or the Small LENDER Act.

Sec. 2. Small business loan data collection

Section 704B of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691c–2) is amended—

(1)

in subsection (g), by adding at the end the following:

(4) Compliance with covered rule
(A) In general
With respect to the covered rule, the Bureau shall provide a financial institution a 3-year period beginning on the date the covered rule was issued to comply with the rule.
(B) Safe harbor
After the end of the 3-year period described under subparagraph (A), the Bureau shall provide a 2-year safe harbor to a financial institution during which the financial institution is required to comply with the covered rule but is not subject to any penalties for failure to comply with the covered rule.
(C) Covered rule defined
In this paragraph, the term covered rule means the final rule of the Bureau titled Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B) (88 Fed. Reg. 35150, published May 31, 2023). ; and

(2)

in subsection (h)—

(A)

by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following:

(1) Financial institution
The term financial institution means—
(A)
any partnership, company, corporation, association (incorporated or unincorporated), trust, estate, cooperative organization, or other entity that engages in any financial activity; and
(B)
in each of the previous 2 calendar years originated not less than 500 credit transactions for small businesses.; and

(B)

by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:

(2) Small business
The term small business means any entity with gross annual revenues of $1,000,000 or less in the most recently completed fiscal year.