• Key insight: Treasury would no longer recognize African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Filipino and Vietnamese populations as targeted market types for community development financial institution certification. 
• What's at stake: The proposal comes as the Trump administration has criticized the CDFI Fund as promoting what officials have called "woke" ideologies.
• Forward look: Treasury is seeking public comment on the proposed information collection changes through Nov. 30.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is proposing a new regime of information collection for the Community Development Financial Institution Fund that excludes race as a criteria for targeted market populations — underserved communities that CDFIs have been explicitly certified to serve in the past. 

The Trump administration has targeted the CDFI Fund, at times publicly arguing that it should be entirely dissolved. The fund is popular among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and it's been a point of contention between some Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration. 

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought complained to Congress earlier this year that the fund specifically benefits so-called "woke" ideologies, including sponsoring funds that look to lend to minority populations. In the new information collection rules, CDFIs that specifically serve minority communities wouldn't be able to use that as a "targeted population" that qualifies them to access the fund. 

Specifically, the Federal Register notice lists African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Filipino, Vietnamese as groups that will no longer be eligible as target market types, along with "Other Targeted Population" types that are based on the race or ethnicity of the borrower. 

The move was expected. The Trump administration has complained about the CDFI Fund's direction, and advocated for their proposed changes to it. 

"We want to make sure that it is doing what it is designed and not loaded with a partisan wish list," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the Senate earlier this year. 

CDFIs have struggled since the beginning of the Trump administration. Just earlier this week, the Trump administration told a federal judge that the Treasury Department had obligated the nearly $289 million in congressionally approved funding before it expired on Sept. 30. Before that, the Office of Management and Budget had withheld the money, and there was some last-minute drama after OMB released it to the Treasury to be disbursed. 

"If you look at what these CDFIs were funding, many of them continue to be woke," OMB head Russell Vought said in a House Budget hearing earlier this year. "They continue to be pushing an ideology that is very harmful."

The Treasury will take public comment on the proposed changes through Nov. 30.