Action Alert: Important Legislation on which United Methodists can make a difference!
There are several important pieces of legislation that we, as Iowa United Methodists, can make a big impact on if you contact your Iowa House and Senate members. Don’t know who they are? Please go to the following link to find them: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/index.html.
On Monday morning, two subcommittee meetings will be open to the general public: House File 2127 (Pay Day Loans) and Senate File 2125. The Iowa Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church is signed on in support of both these bills and it would be great to have supporters at the subcommittee meetings. For those of you attending UMC Advocacy Day on Monday, we will be doing advocacy on these in the afternoon, although we will miss the morning subcommittees.
The HF 2127 (Pay Day Lending bill) subcommittee meeting will be at 11:00 a.m. in the House Lobbyist Lounge at the Capitol (2nd floor). The SF 2125 (propane for low-income families) subcommittee will meet at 9:00 a.m. in the Senate Lobbyist Lounge at the Capitol (also 2nd floor).
House File 2127: Pay Day Loans
We support HF 2127, which gives pay day loan companies a choice between either offering lenders an interest rate that is capped at 36% on any checks that they come to get cashed or to uphold the current structure, but enforce a limit of no more than six loans a year for any given customer. We have a great chance of getting the bill passed in collaboration with the efforts of a handful of other faith and community-wide advocate organizations.
Last legislative session there were a few bills we supported that did not move forward out of committees. These pieces of legislation worked to stop the cycle of predatory lending for payday loans that many low-income Iowans are forced to take in order to get their work checks cashed, but many of whom get put into a cycle of debt where they would have to pay over 200% interest on the amount that they cashed. They would then have to continue to take out more loans in order to pay off the interest from the original amount of money they had taken out.
· Payday loans are very high interest loans that are usually due within two weeks.
· These extremely high interest rates are immoral and exploit hard working Iowa families who struggle to meet their family’s needs from paycheck to paycheck.
· In addition the outrageously high interest rate and the short loan due date trap borrowers in a cycle of debt from which it is very difficult to escape, making it more difficult for these families to meet their basic needs including food, clothing, shelter, health care, home heating and other utilities.
· The most proven and preferred way to stop this cycle of debt for Iowa families is for the state to institute a 36% APR (annual percentage rate) limit on payday loan interest, fees, and other charges. After all this is the same rate limit Congress adopted on such loans to members of the military and their families.
· If the 36% rate limit is good enough to protect military families it is good enough to protect working Iowa families.
· Last year when it was not possible to get the votes for a 36% interest rate limit, the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed SF 463 which placed a limit on the number of loans a payday lender can make to a borrower in a 12 month period (known as a loan cap.) That legislation did not become law and is worth trying to pass again.,
Loan cap provisions of SF 463:
· Prohibit payday lenders from making loans to anyone who has had payday loans for 90 days in any 12 month period. In effect this would limit the number of loans any borrower can have to no more than 6 a year (from any one lender or any number of lenders combined). Currently the average Iowa payday loan borrower takes out 12 loans per year. That means that average borrower has a payday loan outstanding for about half their pay periods each year. The loan limit provision is based upon FDIC rules for payday lending by banks or for banks working with third party payday lenders. Enacting a yearly loan limit will stop the debt trap but still allow loans to the occasional users the industry says the loans are designed for.
· Require payday lenders to subscribe to a database service to in order to implement the provision limiting the number of loans a borrower can have in a year. Information in the database would remain confidential except for purposes of enforcement by the banking division. Using a database will help protect both borrowers and payday lenders in making sure the loan limits are adhered to. The database can also provide future data to see if the loan limit approach closes the debt trap.
· Require a loan repayment plan that would allow borrowers to pay off the loan in a way that is not more expensive than just flipping the loan over. This would give people with payday loans a way to pay off the loan without incurring significantly more cost than simply flipping the loan over and remaining in debt.
· Require a 2 day cooling off period between loans is an attempt to at least slow down the back-to-back loan process
Please urge your legislators to enact legislation this session through House File 2127 that will close the cycle of debt caused by these high interest payday loans.
Either limit the interest rate to 36% APR
OR
Close the cycle of debt by prohibiting payday lenders from making more that six loans to a borrower within a 12 month period.
In this time of economic crisis as more and more families are struggling to survive, the legislature must act to stop these predatory payday loans and help these working Iowa families.
Please Contact the Following Legislators from the Subcommittee for HF 2127 to Let Them Know You Support This Bill and want it to move out of Subcommittee:
Rep. Wenthe
Rep. Helland
Rep. Kressig
Rep. Reasoner
Rep. Sands
Also Contact the Following Members of the House Commerce Committee:
Rep. Petersen (Chair)
Rep. Reichert
Rep. Kressig (Vice Chair)
Rep. Shomshor
Rep. Soderberg (Ranking Member)
Rep. Sorenson
Rep. Bailey
Rep. Helland
Rep. Jacoby
Rep. Kelley
Rep. Wagner
Rep. Lukan
Rep. Windschitl
Rep. Oldson
Rep. Struyk
Rep. Donovan Olson
Rep. Tyler Olson
Rep. Pettengill
Rep. Quirck
Rep. Rants
Rep. Reasoner
Senate File 2125 and House File 2166: Propane and Home Heating Access for Low-Income Iowans
We support both of these bills. These bills are very important pieces of legislation that work to ensure that low-income Iowans are able to receive fuels for home heating purposes. There have been several instances of low-income families not being able to heat their homes due to denial of delivery of propane by the companies.
This bill prohibits a deliverable fuel vendor from withholding the sale or delivery of deliverable fuel to a customer between November 1 and April 1 yearly, if the customer meets one of the two alternative criteria. One criteria qualifies customers for delivery if they are eligible for the federal low-income home energy assistance program. The second criteria qualify customers who can document that they are able to make a cash payment for deliverable fuel of $500. The bill provides that if there is an unpaid balance by the customer, 75% of the cash payment may be allocated by the deliverable fuel vendor toward the current deliverable fuel sale or delivery, and that 35% may be allocated towards the unpaid balance. The bill would direct that the division of community action agencies of the department of human rights adopt rules governing contracts and agreements with deliverable fuel vendors in order to protect the rights of people who heat their homes with deliverable fuels.
We strongly support this bill because it is in following with our United Methodist beliefs that at the center of the vision of shalom is the integration of environmental, economic, and social justice. We also uphold the importance and awareness of the tragic effects that steadily increasing energy costs will have, especially upon the aged and those living in poverty. [Taken from The United Methodist Book of Resolutions 2008, Resolution 1001 and Resolution 1023].
Please Talk to Your Legislators to Urge Members of the House Commerce Committee to Support HF 2166:
Rep. Petersen (Chair)
Rep. Reichert
Rep. Kressig (Vice Chair)
Rep. Sands
Rep. Soderberg (Ranking Member)
Rep. Shomshor
Rep. Bailey
Rep. Sorenson
Rep. Helland
Rep. Struyk
Rep. Jacoby
Rep. Kelley
Rep. Wagner
Rep. Lukan
Rep. Windschitl
Rep. Oldson
Rep. Donovan Olson
Rep. Tyler Olson
Rep. Pettengill
Rep. Quirck
Rep. Rants
Rep. Reasoner
House File 2071: The Iowa Opportunities Workforce Act
In coalition with other statewide faith and community groups, we support House File 2071, the “Iowa Opportunities Workforce Act” that was filed and referred to the House Education Committee.
This bill works to provide access to in-state tuition rates at colleges and universities in Iowa for qualified and eligible immigrant high school students who have been living in the state for a minimum of five years and who have or will graduate from an Iowa high school, but who would not currently be afforded the same tuition rates as other Iowa high school graduates due to their immigration status.
This bill is similar to the federal DREAM Act and is a vitally important bill that creates movement towards comprehensive, humane, and just immigration reform at both the state and federal level and creates invaluable educational opportunities to young adult immigrants in our communities.
This bill is valuable for our communities and our state because of the important educational opportunities it provides to future leaders and also to work to intentionally develop an educated work force in our state.
Please Talk to the Following Legislators on the House Education Committee:
Rep. Wendt (Chair)
Rep. Palmer
Rep. Ficken (Vice Chair)
Rep. Raecker
Rep. May (Ranking Member)
Rep. Schulte
Rep. Abdul-Samad (Bill sponsor)
Rep. Steckman
Rep. Bukta
Rep. Sweeney
Rep. Cohoon (Subcommittee Member for Bill)
Rep. Thede
Rep. Cownie
Rep. Tymeson (She was on sub)
Rep. Dolecheck
Rep. Willems
Rep. Ford
Rep. Winckler
Rep. Forristall
Rep. Kelley
Rep. Koester
Rep. Mascher
Rep. Linda Miller
