On November 22, 2021, the CFPB filed its seventh status report with the California federal district court hearing the lawsuit brought by the California Reinvestment Coalition, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, and two individual plaintiffs in 2019. The purpose of the suit was to force the Bureau to issue a proposal implementing the small business data requirements of Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 after years of delay. In the status filing, new CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, who was appointed to that role on October 12, 2021, was automatically substituted for Acting Director Dave Uejio as a defendant under the federal rules of civil procedure.
The status report reiterates the fact that the CFPB has met the deadlines to date under the Stipulated Settlement Agreement with the plaintiffs, including issuing the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (“SBREFA”) outline on September 15, 2020; convening a SBREFA panel on October 15, 2020; and completing the SBREFA report on December 14, 2020. Most recently, the Bureau met the deadline for issuance of the Section 1071 notice of proposed rulemaking (“Section 1071 NPRM”), which was due on September 30, 2021, but published slightly earlier on September 1, 2021. The status report notes that comments on the Section 1071 NPRM are due by January 6, 2022.
Importantly, the status report indicates that after the Section 1071 NPRM rulemaking concludes, the CFPB will meet and confer with plaintiffs regarding an “appropriate deadline” for issuance of the final rule, consistent with the Stipulated Settlement Agreement.
In September 2021, Ballard Spahr attorneys held a webinar on the Section 1071 NPRM. We also discussed the NPRM in a two-part podcast. Click here to listen to Part I and here to listen to Part II.