S. 5639: Portal for Appraisal Licensing Act of 2026

This bill would direct the federal Appraisal Subcommittee to create and maintain a cloud-based online portal for appraisers and appraisal management companies (AMCs) to use when applying for and renewing licenses, certifications, and registrations.

What the portal would do

• Serve as a central place to submit license, certification, and registration applications and renewals.
• Connect with state appraiser licensing agencies so they can access application and renewal information.
• Include information such as completed education, continuing education, work experience logs, exam results, and, where applicable, background check information.
• Allow payment of required fees through the portal.
• Provide letters of good standing to state agencies.
• Use an existing platform if one is already available.

Background checks

• If a state requires criminal background checks for appraisers or AMCs, the bill would require the Attorney General to give the relevant state officials access to the criminal history information they need.
• The Appraisal Subcommittee could act as a middleman to help request and distribute background-check information between the FBI/Justice Department and state agencies.
• Appraisers and others who need a background check would submit fingerprints through the portal and authorize the check.
• Background checks completed through this process would satisfy certain federal oversight requirements.

Education and identification records

• State agencies could identify which education courses are approved.
• Education providers and state agencies could upload lists of people who completed those courses.
• The Appraisal Subcommittee would use a unique identifier for each person using the portal, and may also use one for each AMC.

Role of the states

• States would still keep their own authority to approve or deny applications and renewals.
• State fees and state-specific information would still go to the states, but through the portal in a streamlined way.

Advisory committee and funding

• The Appraisal Subcommittee would create an advisory committee made up of industry representatives, appraisers, lenders, AMCs, and state licensing agencies.
• The portal could be funded by reasonable user fees charged to people and AMCs using it, but only enough to cover the cost of building and running the system and related background checks.
• The bill would also allow grants to state licensing agencies to help connect their systems to the portal.

Relevant Companies

• None found