Date: 2015-11-04
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Chair. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair. this amendment combines 15 Financial Services bills that have had broad bipartisan support and passed through the committee and on the House floor. These bills address important issues that range from helping to preserve affordable rental housing to providing regulatory relief to small banks and reporting companies. to affording startups. emerging growth companies and community financial institutions with greater flexibility to raise capital. Let me be clear. I have supported these bills in committee and on the floor. But. Madam Chair and Members. this Congress is made up of two Houses. the House of Representatives and the Senate. Just as we were given the opportunity to debate and amend these bills. taking into account concerns from our constituents and interested stakeholders. the Senate should also be given the opportunity. I am also concerned with the other amendments and their potential negative effect on this set of bills. For example. Representative YOUNG has an amendment that would require each rulemaking in the highway bill. as amended. to include a list of information upon which it is based. including data. scientific and economic studies. and costbenefit analysis. and identify how the public can access such information online. What this means is that the Securities and Exchange Commission. in conducting its rulemaking under Chairman HENSARLINGs amendment. would face this additional administrative hurdle. including the innocentsounding costbenefit analysis. However. costbenefit analysis is a tool that has been used by the industry and the opposite side of the aisle both in agencies and in the courts and in Congress to delay. weaken. or kill necessary reforms. Such analysis encourages secondguessing. favors easily quantifiable costs over less tangible benefits. and is extremely resource intensive. That is why my Democratic colleagues and I have opposed its application to the SEC. an agency that already performs economic analysis for its rulemaking and has enough on its plate with its additional responsibility under the JOBS Act and the DoddFrank Act. Requiring the SEC to conduct an onerous costbenefit analysis is even more concerning with the Republicans refusal to adequately fund the agency. So the meager existing funds would have to be diverted from other important SEC functions. like enforcement and investigations. Costbenefit analysis in Representative YOUNGS amendment is also opposed by consumer advocates like the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards. While. again. I support the 15 Financial Services bills in this amendment. I oppose this process of pushing them through the House attached to the highway bill. Madam Chair and Members. again. this is about process. I do believe that the Senate should have the ability to debate these bills. Coming out of the Financial Services Committee. we are tasked with the responsibility to take a very complicated subject matter. Financial Services matters. and to make sure that we give every Member an opportunity to have input. to have credible debates. I just believe that the Senate should have that opportunity. So while we have supported these billsand Mr. HENSARLING is absolutely correctwe had an opportunity to do that because we understood them very well. We debated them. We had an opportunity to have input to ask questions. to do everything that you need to do to be well informed about legislation that you are either supporting or opposing. Again. this is about process. I just simply believe that the Senate should have the right to debate. I yield back the balance of my time.