54 U.S.C. § 303901 — Loan insurance program for preservation of property included on National Register

(a) Setting up the program. The Secretary must set up and run a program under which the Secretary can insure loans — including mortgage loans — that a private lender makes to finance a project preserving a property on the National Register. The Secretary does this when a private lender applies. (b) When a loan can be insured. A loan qualifies for insurance if all seven of these are true: (1) a private lender the Secretary has approved as financially sound and able to properly service the loan makes it; (2) the loan amount and interest rate stay within limits the Secretary sets by regulation; (3) the Secretary has consulted the right State Historic Preservation Officer about preserving the property; (4) the Secretary has determined the loan is adequately secured and repayment is reasonably assured; (5) the repayment period does not exceed 40 years or the asset's expected life, whichever is shorter; (6) the insured amount does not exceed 90 percent of the lender's loss on the loan; and (7) the loan, the borrower, and the historic property meet whatever other terms and conditions the Secretary sets by regulation — especially conditions about how good the preservation work is. (c) Consulting on interest rates. The Secretary must consult the Secretary of the Treasury about the interest rate on insured loans. (d) Cap on unpaid loan balances. The total unpaid principal balance of all loans insured under this section cannot exceed the money that has been deposited in the Historic Preservation Fund but not yet appropriated for any purpose. (e) Insurance contracts. A loan insurance contract the Secretary signs can be transferred to someone else. It is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, and it cannot be challenged — except for fraud or a misrepresentation the policyholder actually knew about when they became the policyholder. (f) Paying out on a loss. The Secretary must spell out, by regulation and in each contract, the conditions and method for paying a private lender after a loss on an insured loan. (g) Protecting the Federal Government's money. Whenever the Secretary signs a contract to insure a loan, the Secretary must take steps to properly protect the Federal Government's financial interests. The Secretary may (1) get the historic property that secures an insured loan, on the government's behalf, as part of a foreclosure, and (2) operate or lease that property as needed to protect the government's interest and to carry out subsection (h). (h) Handing off foreclosed property. (1) If the Secretary gets historic property through foreclosure under subsection (g), the Secretary must try to convey it to a government or nongovernment entity under conditions that keep the property preserved and in use. If, after a reasonable time, the Secretary — consulting with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation — decides there is no workable, sensible way to convey the property while keeping it preserved and in use, the Secretary may instead sell it at fair market value to any entity, with no strings attached. (2) Any money the Secretary gets from conveying such property goes into the Historic Preservation Fund and stays there until Congress appropriates it for this division. (i) Fees. The Secretary may charge reasonable fees for insuring loans. Those fees go into the Historic Preservation Fund and stay there until Congress appropriates them. (j) Treating insured loans as non-Federal money. Even though other laws might say otherwise, a loan insured under this section counts as non-Federal money for purposes of any other law that requires a Federal-fund recipient to also use non-Federal money to pay part of a project's cost. (k) The Federal Financing Bank cannot buy these loans. No debt obligation that the Secretary makes, commits to make, insures, or commits to insure under this section can be bought, committed to be bought, sold, or issued to the Federal Financing Bank.