CDFI Fund Transparency Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The CDFI Fund Transparency Act adds an annual-testimony provision to the statute establishing the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The Treasury Secretary, or a designee, must testify about the Fund's operations during the previous year when the relevant congressional committee chairs exercise their discretion to request the testimony.
The covered committees are the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Testimony may occur before the full committees or a subcommittee. The text assigns discretion to the chairs rather than setting a fixed hearing date or requiring testimony when neither chair invokes the provision.
The bill does not change CDFI certification, award eligibility, grant or tax-credit amounts, appropriations, program priorities, reporting metrics, audit standards, or enforcement authority. It creates an oral oversight mechanism based on existing operational information.
Who Benefits and How
The two congressional committees and their chairs gain an express annual mechanism to question Treasury about CDFI Fund operations. Community development lenders, award applicants, taxpayers, researchers, and communities served by CDFIs may gain visibility and accountability if hearings occur.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Treasury Secretary or designee and CDFI Fund staff must prepare testimony, briefing materials, and responses. Congressional staff must organize hearings. Fund officials and award recipients may face reputational or oversight scrutiny, but the bill imposes no new application or reporting duty directly on CDFIs.
Key Provisions
- Adds annual CDFI Fund testimony authority.
- Requires testimony from the Treasury Secretary or a designee.
- Covers Fund operations during the previous year.
- Authorizes testimony before either covered committee.
- Authorizes testimony before a covered subcommittee.
- Preserves committee-chair discretion over whether to invoke testimony.
- Creates no fixed hearing date.
- Provides no new grant, appropriation, audit, or CDFI report.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires the Treasury Secretary or a designee, when the chairs of the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees exercise the statutory discretion, to testify annually about the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund's operations during the previous year.
Key Policy Areas
Community Development Finance, CDFI Fund, Congressional Oversight, Treasury Testimony, Financial Inclusion
Primary Purpose
Requires the Treasury Secretary or a designee, when the chairs of the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees exercise the statutory discretion, to testify annually about the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund's operations during the previous year.
Policy Domains
Sections 1 and 2 short title and discretionary annual congressional testimony
Identified Gains
- House Financial Services Committee members
- Senate Banking Committee members
- Community development financial institutions
- CDFI award applicants
- Communities served by CDFIs
- Taxpayers monitoring CDFI operations
- Community finance researchers
Identified Costs
- Treasury officials preparing annual testimony
- CDFI Fund briefing staff
- Congressional hearing staff
- CDFI officials facing public scrutiny
Sponsors
John W. Rose
R-TN | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Rose (for himself and Mrs. Kim) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
CDFI Fund administrators, CDFI Fund briefing staff, Congressional financial-services committees
Positive-direction: House Financial Services Committee members, Senate Banking Committee members
Negative-direction: CDFI Fund briefing staff, Congressional hearing staff, Treasury officials preparing annual testimony
CDFI award applicants, CDFI officials facing public scrutiny, Community development financial institutions
Communities served by CDFIs
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "witness"
- → Treasury Secretary or designee providing testimony
- "house_chair"
- → House Financial Services Committee chair
- "stakeholder"
- → CDFI institution or community following the hearing
- "senate_chair"
- → Senate Banking Committee chair
- "administrator"
- → CDFI Fund official preparing operational information
Note: {'scope_ids': ['cdfi_fund_annual_testimony'], 'description': 'The provision creates a duty to testify when invoked by the named chairs, not an automatic annual hearing, and adds no substantive CDFI program, funding, certification, award, audit, or applicant-reporting change.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The prior-year administration and activities of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund addressed in testimony.
Committee or subcommittee testimony by the Treasury Secretary or designee regarding the Fund's operations in the prior year.
The statutory condition making annual testimony dependent on exercise of discretion by the named House and Senate committee chairs.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology