Investigate Appraisal Institute's Operating Practices

We petition the US Congress to do an inclusive investigation of the Appraisal Institute, its membership/practitioners, and the reports its members produce. We advocate abolishing the use of appraisal designations, as said designations cause confusion to the lending community and the public at large.
The Appraisal Institute (AI) continually lobbies for its membership to have lenders assign their members appraisal work and preferential treatment over other appraisers who are duly licensed, but do not have MAI/SRA designations.
AI is a private organization with its main operation being an appraisal instruction school.
It is one of the largest appraisal schools in the world. AI is now in the process of completing a merger with the ASA. The AI is predatory and monopolistic as it continues to discredit appraisal course instruction by non - AI instructors, in that Appraisal instructors looking in from the outside (Instructors who are not AI members) do not offer the lofty "designation(s)" the appraisal institute provides.
The Appraisal Institute reveres their position in the appraisal community, as it promotes its so-called prestigious designations - MAI/SRA. When in fact the educational courses for state licensure for appraisers are based upon criteria as mandated by the Appraisal Foundation's Course Approval Program (CAP) which is the same for all states for licensure, and said course work is readily available by Non AI designated instructors.
There are residential and commercially certified state appraisers, and said licensure, along with being in compliance with the competency provision as stated in FIRREA are the qualifications required to perform and conduct the profession in which appraisers are so licensed to do.
Accordingly, eliminating the designation will eliminate the confusion it causes in the lending community, where lenders repeatedly ask for an MAI or an SRA approved report.
The AI charges membership fees to candidate members, while existing members (MAI/SRAs) may persuade you to join with the intimidation that your work may be blacklisted via the lending community, (Which is contrary to the FIRREA anti-discrimination lawchapter 564.5-6), if you dont.
Said anti-discrimination law was passed back in 1989, namely due to the S & L crises, in which many questionable appraisal reports were prepared by Institute members.
The Appraisal Institute has managed to slip a paragraph (section 203K) in the HR 3837 bill, which proposes to reverse anti-discriminatory legislation, which has been in existence since 1989. This will cause further confusion and exclusion for the state certified appraiser not designated with AI, when in fact there is no difference between state certification and MAI/SRA.
Furthermore, the appraisal Institute is known to be and IS a nepotistic organization. The AI makes it very difficult, and in many cases impossible, to obtain their designations. Their existing membership oftentimes refuses to approve their candidate members for the MAI/SRA designations, as the ordained members realize that if/when they do, they are inviting competition into their exclusive domain.
Accordingly, the Institute keeps candidate members hanging on year after year, paying associate membership fees, but oftentimes said associate members never get to see the prized MAI or SRA designations.
Appraisal reports prepared by members of the Institute should be investigated for fraudulent content and/or gross incompetence which may be found in their reports, including, but not limited to severely inflated valuations.
The Appraisal Institute and any like private sector schools tend to contaminate the process of doing business through fear and intimidation by advocating for restraint of trade in favor of their designations. They appear to act in the capacity as the unofficial/unregulated authority over the appraisal industry. Federal and State agencies regulate the appraisal industry - not the Appraisal Institute.
Summary Abolish the Appraisal Institutes designations (MAI/SRA), and any other designation(s) by private sector educational institutions, as it causes confusion for lenders and the general public.