HUD's housing counseling program provides, through HUD-approved counseling agencies and State housing finance agencies, including their affiliates and branches, counseling to individuals seeking information about financing, maintaining, renting, or owning a home. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act amended the Housing Counseling statute to improve the effectiveness of housing counseling in HUD's programs by, among other things, requiring that the entities and individual counselors be certified by HUD as competent to provide such services. The statute requires that certification is based on an examination provided by HUD that the individual counselor must pass. The statute also prohibits distribution of grant funds to agencies found in violation of Federal election laws or who have employees found in violation of Federal election laws, and requires the reimbursement of grant funds for misuse of funds. HUD issued a proposed rule on September 13, 2013, to establish in regulation the reforms made by the Dodd-Frank Act. This final rule revises HUD's housing counseling program regulations to adopt the new requirements applicable to counseling agencies and individual counselors and revised HUD General Program requirements to reflect that any Housing Counseling required under or provided in connection with any program administered by HUD shall be provided only by organization and counselors certified by HUD to provide housing counseling. While the requirement to take and pass the certification examination is incorporated in the final rule, the availability of the examination will be announced by separate Federal Register notice, and HUD will provide a reasonable period of time for counselors to take and pass the examination and be certified.