The 108th Congress will be as favorable or more favorable to real estate interests than its predecessor, two leaders of the National Association of REALTORS® said last month at a media briefing during the 2002 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans.
“We are very positive about the results of the election,” said Martin Edwards Jr., the outgoing NAR president. “Key supporters of NAR-backed legislation not only have been returned to office but also are moving into leadership positions in the new Congress. We are very pleased about that.”
NAR will be looking to these leaders to press the association’s efforts to prohibit big banking conglomerates from getting into real estate brokerage and property management, which would be permitted under a proposal by the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department. NAR opposes the proposal because it will lead to less competition, less choice and higher costs for consumers.
More than 245 members of the House and 15 in the Senate have signed on as cosponsors of the NAR-backed bill, the Community Choice in Real Estate Act, H.R. 3424/ S. 1839.
Edwards and Jerry Giovaniello, NAR’s chief lobbyist and senior vice president of government affairs, hailed several important changes in the Senate as that body’s leadership shifts to Republican control.
• Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., will assume the chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee. Shelby is a cosponsor of Senate legislation to keep banks out of real estate.
• Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., an original sponsor the banking legislation, is due to take over chairmanship of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing.
• Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., will head up the Senate Subcommittee on HUD and VA Appropriations. Bond has been very engaged in housing issues in the past, said Giovaniello.
• Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who has championed real estate causes in the House and is an original sponsor of the House bill, was re-elected by a wide margin.
Edwards said that contributions by the REALTOR® Political Action Committee to candidates during the past two-year election cycle was bipartisan: 53 percent went to Republican candidates and 47 percent to Democrats. RPAC contributions totaled about $3 million.
Edwards and Giovaniello outlined the top half-dozen real estate issues that will face the incoming Congress: keeping banks out of real estate, affordable housing, terrorism and homeowners insurance, tax reform, government housing programs and how they incentivize or de-incentivize housing, and consumer issues such as credit scoring and credit availability.