Green incentives for lenders: hearing this week

WASHINGTON (6/10/08)—There is a hearing scheduled this week on a bill that would provide incentives to lenders and financial institutions to provide lower interest loans and other benefits to consumers who build, buy, or remodel their homes and businesses to improve their energy efficiency.

The House Financial Services Committee hearing is Wednesday and a witness list will be available later this week. Its focus is H.R. 6078, the Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods Act of 2008.

That bill was introduced May 15 by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Co.) and sports 22 co-sponsors, including Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the committee.

Perlmutter, in a release, has said of his bill, "This legislation proves that it is easy to be green. This bill helps revitalize our economy by making energy efficiency practices more affordable, accessible and achievable by consumers, businesses and government entities."

The only other hearing of particular note to credit unions scheduled in the House this week is on H.R. 5840, the Insurance Information Act of 2008. That bill would create a federal Office of Insurance Information within the Department of the Treasury to provide advice and expertise on insurance policy to the Administration and to Congress.

The hearing will be conducted by the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets, insurance, and government-sponsored enterprises. It was introduced in April by the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and has four co-sponsors. A witness list had not been released as of Monday.

Kanjorski, along with Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), is also author of the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (CURIA, H.R. 1537), intended to modernize the regulatory structure of credit unions.

courtesy of cuna.org