House Passes National Defense Authorization Act
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included three amendments on which AFSA commented in a previous letter to the House Rules Committee. AFSA supported two amendments and opposed one. In addition, the House passed an amendment aimed at ending arbitration agreements for members of the Armed Services. Below is a quick summary of the three amendments.
Amendment #389 – AFSA Opposed
This amendment extends consumer credit protections to active duty armed and uniformed consumers to dispute adverse actions or inaction on their credit report that occurred while they are away from their usual duty station.
While AFSA supports members of the military and their families’ access to affordable and responsible credit products, this amendment, as drafted, would restrict access to credit for servicemembers and their families by incorporating less accurate credit data that would result in less financial flexibility and higher borrowing costs.
Amendment #445 – AFSA Supported
This amendment expands the use of remote online notarization (RON) technology nationally and enables completion of the notarization process with the notary and signer in different physical locations. AFSA supports this amendment because it would expand access to notarization, allow for flexible accommodation, and afford consumers time to review documents.
Amendment #559 – AFSA Supported
This amendment adds the bipartisan SAFE Banking Act to the NDAA, which allows state-legal cannabis businesses to access the banking system and ends Operation Choke Point. Specifically, it prohibits a federal banking agency from terminating a banking relationship with a legal business unless there is a valid reason that is not based solely on reputational risk. AFSA has previously written to Congress on this issue, emphasizing that state licensed consumer finance companies, which are already highly regulated, should not be unfairly targeted due to political bias.
While AFSA is broadly supportive of the NDAA, it will continue to engage with members of the Senate and their staff to prevent in the bill’s final passage the inclusion of any harmful amendments that restrict access to financial services and credit products for servicemembers and their spouses and all other consumers.
September 27th, 2021 by Dan Bucherer
