The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association noted this week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published a notice in the Federal Register that extends the deadlines for compliance with the rules issues under Section 1071. The notice extends the deadlines almost a full year, but ELFA believes that this is just the first step in a much larger process to start over on Section 1071. In fact, ELFA noted in its June Washington Report, the notice itself indicates that the CFPB will repropose the rule.

While there are some portions of the notice (especially the voluntary compliance provisions) that might lead a reader to think that the rule as written will still be implemented, everything ELFA has seen to date from the Trump Administration would indicate otherwise, according to the June Report. The rule written by the Trump CFPB is "unlikely to even resemble the 888-page rule issued under form(er) CFPB Director Chopra."

ELFA said it is actively engaged with both the Administration and Congress on these issues and will keep members up to date on developments. For now, ELFA said, it might be best to let some dust settle before looking ahead.

Elsewhere, H.R.1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", has passed the House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has released its own version. Senate action is expected soon, ELFA noted.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act builds upon the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that must be renewed before the end of this year. ELFA is closely monitoring the progress of this legislation in an effort to have key industry legislative priorities such as providing for 100% expensing and renewal of the EBITDA standard for interest deductibility (admittedly, we’d love to get all interest deductibility back, but that’s likely not in the cards this year).

The good news, the report states, is that the House-passed bill provides for a five-year extension of both of these provisions. The Senate draft bill is even better in that it permanently extends both provisions, ELFA stated.

Senators are expected to continue their negotiations with the goal of passing the bill ahead of the July Fourth Congressional recess.