Date: 2016-02-04
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and Members. after the Justice Department finally began to use the Financial Institutions Reform. Recovery. and Enforcement Act that we refer to as FIRREA to create some semblance of justice for financial crisisera bank fraud and misconduct. my Republican colleagues respond by restricting the Department of Justices most powerful tool for holding banks accountable. This is an interesting debate that we are having. We are sitting here wondering why it is that not one Member on the Republican side of the aisle who has taken to the floor to debate this bill will talk about FIRREA and will talk about the Justice Department and what you are doing in stripping away their powers. I know why. Because you know that. if. in fact. you really got up and talked about what you were doing. you would lose all of the votes even on your side of the aisle. This is outrageous. So you are hiding behind Choke Point. Not one Member on the opposite side of the aisle has the guts to get up and say: I cant do this. I am going to talk about what this bill is really about. And so they continue to march down here. taking their orders to talk about Choke Point. Choke Point. Choke Point. No. No. No. This is about stripping the Justice Department of its investigatory powers and its subpoena powers. FIRREA is the last line of defense between consumers and investors and bank fraud. Central to the DOJs ability to investigate fraud and to build cases against financial institutions is its subpoena power. power that H.R. 766 singles out for unprecedented and burdensome restrictions. Instead of bolstering the Justice Departments ability to investigate mortgage fraud. H.R. 766 seeks to actually protect the banks and to insulate them from accountability. Wow. Wow. Can you just imagine that anyone could go home to their constituents and say: I just voted for a bill that would actually protect banks and insulate them from accountability. I just voted for a bill to strip the Justice Department of its power to investigate? Bank fraud should be met with the full force of the Federal Government. H.R. 766 is a dangerous step backwards for an economy still reeling from financial crisisera fraud and misconduct. Every regulator has been clear that account closures arent the result of pressure from regulators. but from banks that have decided that. for some customers. they would rather lose their business than investigate any antifraud practices to protect our financial system from money laundering. Look. you have got people who are willing to work on that part of public policy that you would like to see some changes in. but this is not it. When you couple that discussion to overshadow what you are doing. to strip the Justice Department of its powers to investigate. what you are doing is you are setting up a situation to take us backwards and to harm so many people. Have you forgotten the lessons already of 2008? Have you forgotten already what this country went through? Have you forgotten that the citizens of this country had to bail out the biggest banks to keep us from going into a depression? We went into a recession. We tore up communities. We threw people out of their homes. We increased homelessness. Now you want to come back and give the banks an opportunity to do what got us into trouble in the first place? Well. I cant imagine that you are prepared to defend that. The common theme throughout H.R. 766 and many of the proposals that. unfortunately. cleared the Financial Services Committee is that. even in the aftermath of the financial crisis. my Republican colleagues would have you believe it is the big banks that are the ones in need of protection. protection from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. Members are reminded to please address their remarks to the Chair.