H.R. 3009 would require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to undertake several projects and activities jointly with other federal agencies—the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs—as follows:
Issue rules to establish a form that mortgage loan creditors and servicers would use to document consumers’ language preferences throughout the mortgage process,
Translate federal documents related to residential mortgage loan transactions from English into 12 other languages,
Report annually to the Congress on recommendations to improve the mortgage process for consumers with limited English proficiency,
Establish and maintain a website to provide language resources for mortgage loan creditors, servicers, and consumers, and
Update their websites to allow users to search for housing counseling agencies based on the language services they provide.
H.R. 3009 also would require the CFPB to establish a group to advise the bureau on providing foreign-language resources to mortgage consumers and would require HUD to provide language training for housing counselors, counseling agencies, and their staff.
