Jackson: RESPA Consultation to Begin Soon

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson says he will start consultation with House and Senate Banking Committee leaders in the next 60 days on formulating a new RESPA reform proposal.The secretary told House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, that his department has been analyzing various proposals to reform the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and that he will seek congressional input on the best approach. Rep. Oxley welcomed the secretary's commitment to pursue regulatory reform to simplify the mortgage application and settlement process. "By your effort to work with Congress, it improves the chances dramatically that we will get a proposal that passes muster," Rep. Oxley said at an oversight hearing on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget.