Finance, investment and tax-related legislation

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump's National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett, are set to meet Tuesday with House and Senate Republican leaders and their top tax writers to try to resolve differences over the scale of cuts and ways of paying for them.

The proposed legislation would automate access to information and require faster responses to requests for title status that have been a longstanding concern.

The legislative proposals backed by Republican members of congress seek to undo the latest cross-subsidized adjustments to loan fees that two large government-related mortgage investors charge.

Congress should pass legislation that would allow Home Loan banks to backstop deposits by local governments at commercial banks and lower the cost of bond financing, two mayors argue.

Travel restrictions have left hotels like Miami Beach's Fontainebleau struggling to repay their mortgage loans.

A pioneer in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market argues the HOPE Act would bail out savvy investors who don't deserve it. Barclays predicts that kind of attitude will make passage difficult.

One criticism of the CARES Act is that it provides relief only to borrowers with government-backed loans. Bills in New York and California would cover the remaining 30% of homeowners.

The legislation takes aim at third-party bank service vendors, the backlog of FHA appraisals, rural housing assistance and other issues where there is broad agreement.

The Treasury secretary said he hopes lawmakers will back reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within three to six months.

Members from states threatened by storms say their proposal is better for consumers than recent legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee.

The mortgage industry is stepping up its fight against a bill that would raise the Department of Veterans Affairs' mortgage fees to cover medical costs for Vietnam vets.

Lawmakers still have a long way to go before enacting housing finance reform, but the testimony could signal how future legislative talks will play out.

There’s bipartisan consensus that the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are unsustainable, but that may not be enough for lawmakers to upend the current system.

The midterm elections virtually eliminate the chance that progress will be made on financial services legislation.

Richard Smith came to Capitol Hill this week to speak about the massive breach at Equifax, but it was clear Tuesday that he will be defending the entire credit reporting industry.

Ahead of the House vote Thursday on the Financial Choice Act, the two parties were assailing each other as proxies for Wall Street and painting themselves as defenders of community banking and the consumer.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's upcoming report on how to rewrite financial regulation is likely to end up looking very similar to a Dodd-Frank overhaul plan in the House.

Administration and leaders in Congress support some common principles that could help banks.

Efforts at regulatory reform often ignore the source of what led to the overregulation in the first place: the legislative process.