Yahoo Finance Secretary Ben Carson responds to Bank of America & disparate impact rule
Secretary Ben Carson joined Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus and responded to Bank of America's statement regarding the Housing and Urban Development's disparate impact rule.
Video Transcript
SIBILE MARCELLUS: And the racial gap in home ownership between black and white Americans is worse now than it was in the 1960s. Now, Bank of America recently sent a letter to your department, telling you not to issue a new rule on disparate impact that would make it harder to prove housing discrimination. Now, why would President Trump want to make it harder for someone who is, in fact, facing discrimination to be able to prove it?
BEN CARSON: Well, I'm very glad that Bank of America is interested in this issue. And they could do a whole lot to improve the situation for minorities by rejoining the FHA's program for housing.
FHA, as you know, is the largest backer of insurance for [? forward ?] mortgages for minorities, for first-time home buyers, doing over a million cases last year. Bank of America did about 2,200. So if they really want to have an impact, this is what they should be thinking about, rather than criticizing a program that they haven't even seen and don't know anything about.
In terms of disparate impact, what people need to understand is, it is so wide and so broad. The way it is written, all it provides is permanent employment for lawyers.
For instance, let's say Congress decides they want to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Who is impacted most by that? Low-wage workers. They're the ones who are going to lose their jobs because people don't want to pay them $15 an hour. They might be paying them $12 an hour. Well, who are primarily in those groups? Minorities.
Therefore, you've got a disparate impact case right there against-- I could go on forever talking about the way that works. We need to have a much better way of doing it. And that's why FHEO is so active. And if anybody knows of discrimination cases in housing, please tell us, because we are on them like white on rice.
