I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1712 

To prevent foreclosure of home mortgages and provide for the affordable 

refinancing of mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 24, 2013 

Mr. MCNERNEY (for himself, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. COSTA, Mr. HONDA, and Mr. 

JOHNSON of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To prevent foreclosure of home mortgages and provide for 

the affordable refinancing of mortgages held by Fannie 

Mae and Freddie Mac. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Opportunity 

5 and Mortgage Equity Act of 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AFFORDABLE REFINANCING OF MORTGAGES 

2 OWNED OR GUARANTEED BY FANNIE MAE 

3 AND FREDDIE MAC. 

4 (a) AUTHORITY.—The Federal National Mortgage 

5 Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Cor6 poration shall each carry out a program under this section 

7 to provide for the refinancing of qualified mortgages on 

8 single-family housing owned by such enterprise through a 

9 refinancing mortgage, and for the purchase of and 

10 securitization of such refinancing mortgages, in accord11 ance with this section and policies and procedures that the 

12 Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency shall es13 tablish. Such program shall require such refinancing of 

14 a qualified mortgage upon the request of the mortgagor 

15 made to the applicable enterprise and a determination by 

16 the enterprise that the mortgage is a qualified mortgage. 

17 (b) QUALIFIED MORTGAGE.—For purposes of this 

18 section, the term ‘‘qualified mortgage’’ means a mortgage, 

19 without regard to whether the mortgagor is current on or 

20 in default on payments due under the mortgage, that— 

21 (1) is an existing first mortgage that was made 

22 for purchase of, or refinancing another first mort23 gage on, a one- to four-family dwelling, including a 

24 condominium or a share in a cooperative ownership 

25 housing association, that is occupied by the mort26 gagor as the principal residence of the mortgagor; 


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1 (2) is owned or guaranteed by the Federal Na2 tional Mortgage Association or the Federal Home 

3 Loan Mortgage Corporation; and 

4 (3) was originated on or before the date of the 

5 enactment of this Act. 

6 (c) REFINANCING MORTGAGE.—For purposes of this 

7 section, the term ‘‘refinancing mortgage’’ means a mort8 gage that meets the following requirements: 

9 (1) REFINANCING OF QUALIFIED MORTGAGE.— 

10 The principal loan amount repayment of which is se11 cured by the mortgage shall be used to satisfy all in12 debtedness under an existing qualified mortgage. 

13 (2) SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING.—The property 

14 that is subject to the mortgage shall be the same 

15 property that is subject to the qualified mortgage 

16 being refinanced. 

17 (3) INTEREST RATE.—The mortgage shall bear 

18 interest at a single rate that is fixed for the entire 

19 term of the mortgage, which shall be equivalent to 

20 the premium received by the enterprise on the quali21 fied mortgage being refinanced plus the cost of sell22 ing a newly issued mortgage having comparable risk 

23 and term to maturity in a mortgage-backed security, 

24 as such rate may be increased to the extent nec25 essary to cover, over the term to maturity of the 


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1 mortgage, any fee paid to the servicer pursuant to 

2 subsection (d), the cost of any title insurance cov3 erage issued in connection with the mortgage, and, 

4 as determined by the Director, a portion of any ad5 ministrative costs of the program under this section 

6 as may be attributable to the mortgage. 

7 (4) WAIVER OF PREPAYMENT PENALTIES.—All 

8 penalties for prepayment or refinancing of the quali9 fied mortgage that is refinanced by the mortgage, 

10 and all fees and penalties related to the default or 

11 delinquency on such mortgage, shall have been 

12 waived or forgiven. 

13 (5) TERM TO MATURITY.—The mortgage shall 

14 have a term to maturity of not more than 40 years 

15 from the date of the beginning of the amortization 

16 of the mortgage. 

17 (6) PROHIBITION ON BORROWER FEES.—The 

18 servicer conducting the refinancing shall not charge 

19 the mortgagor any fee for the refinancing of the 

20 qualified mortgage through the refinancing mort21 gage. 

22 (7) TITLE INSURANCE.—The fee for title insur23 ance coverage issued in connection with the mort24 gage shall be reasonable in comparison with fees for 


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1 such coverage available in the market for mortgages 

2 having similar terms. 

3 (d) FEE TO SERVICER.—The Director may, in the 

4 Director’s sole discretion, require each enterprise to pay 

5 to the servicer of a qualified mortgage a fee, in such 

6 amount as the Director considers appropriate, for each 

7 qualified mortgage of an enterprise that the servicer refi8 nances through a refinancing mortgage pursuant to this 

9 section. 

10 (e) NO APPRAISAL.—The enterprises may not require 

11 an appraisal of the property subject to a refinancing mort12 gage to be conducted in connection with such refinancing. 

13 (f) TERMINATION.—The requirement under sub14 section (a) for the enterprises to refinance qualified mort15 gages shall not apply to any request for refinancing made 

16 after the expiration of the one-year period beginning on 

17 the date of the enactment of this Act, except that the Di18 rector may, by notice published before the expiration of 

19 such period, extend such period for such additional time 

20 as the Director considers appropriate. 

21 (g) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section, the 

22 following definitions shall apply: 

23 (1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

24 the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agen25 cy. 


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1 (2) ENTERPRISE.—The term ‘‘enterprise’’ 

2 means the Federal National Mortgage Association 

3 and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. 

4 (h) REGULATIONS.—The Director shall issue any 

5 regulations or guidance necessary to carry out the pro6 gram under this section. 

Æ 


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