macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman and Members. this business about consumers not being able to negotiate down. that somehow the car dealers cant give a discount is absolutely not true. absolutely not true. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin . the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade of the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. what Mr. STUTZMAN is doing is trying to confuse people between a rule and a guidance. This is a guidance. and they are trying. through this legislation. to make guidance comply with the same kind of rules that the rules have to go through. So dont pay any attention to that. He is just trying to confuse people. Mr. Chairman. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York . a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman and Members. this is not about financial literacy. This is about raw discrimination. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland . the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He is a real fighter for freedom and justice.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Chairman. ladies and gentlemen. I want to take a moment to point out why I am supporting this and am a cosponsor of this bill. First of all. to our leader. the ranking member who does an excellent job. she is absolutely right. We must go at discrimination with lenders. But. Mr. Chairman. the unintended consequence of this is not punishing the lenders who may or may not be doing discrimination. If we show it. they should. Unfortunately. this guidance goes directly at dealers and low- and moderateincome customers. African Americans and other minorities who will be denied. because it takes away the dealers ability to discount interest rates and be flexible. Now. Mr. Chairman. there are 55 million unbanked and underbanked people in the United States. They dont have the bank. They are not going to Ally Bank. [ 1430 But when they want. they have to buy a car. Some of them dont even have a credit card. but they have that dealer that can walk through the door. And if that dealer has the flexibility to be able to discount the interest rate. bringing a lower price to the car. they shouldnt be denied from having that opportunity to do it. Now. let me go to the racial issue. When you play the race card. you have got to make sure you play it right. That is all I am saying. When we looked at the CFPB and we looked at the methodology that they used to determine who the Black people were. they said: Hey. the best way of doing this is to go by the last names: Jackson. Williams. Johnson. Robinson. Yeah. A lot of Black people are named that. but there are an awful lot of White people that are named that. too. So is there any wonder. when the checks went out. that there were some happy White people. looking: Where did I get this money? Where did I get this $200 or $300 from? Now. ladies and gentlemen. I take a backseat to nobody when it comes to standing up and fighting for racial equality. My lifes story is that. I integrated the school systems in Scarsdale. New York. where not only was I just the only Black kid in the school or in my class. but I was the only Black kid in the whole city of Scarsdale. My office mate in the Senate was Julian Bond. We went all across this country speaking for 40 years as a State representative. as a State senator. and now as a Congressman. My whole life has been for fighting this. But when you deal with racial discrimination. it has got to be right. The methodology that the CFPB used is flawed. It is absolutely flawed. In the process. the CFPB itself is being charged with racial discrimination. Now. all I am saying is what is fair is fair. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

We are not asking to discontinue this. We are asking to go after where the discrimination is. But dont hurt the lower middleincome people who dont have the credit or dont have a credit card. They have to go in there and work with that dealer. If you take that out of the way of the dealer. you are hurting the very people that some of the people who are opposing our bill want to help. So. Mr. Chairman. lets get clarity here. Lets get truth here. All we are doing is asking the CFPB to come back. start over. get the right methodology. so you are getting the right people that you are sending the checks to. and also call in the Justice Department. the Federal Trade Commission. and the Federal Reserve. who are the ones under DoddFrank that regulate the auto dealers and not auto lenders.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and Members. all of the arguments that are used by the other side simply are not true. They claim that the CFPB does not have the authority. They do have the authority under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. They claim that they didnt use the right methodologies. the same that is used by the Justice Department. They claim that the dealers cant give discounts. That is absolutely not true. They can. I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California . a former insurance commissioner of California who has dealt with a lot of these issues.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman and Members. no one on this side of the aisle mentioned the word "racist." It is only coming out of the mouths of the people on the opposite side of the aisle. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado . a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman and Members. this discussion today has been about discrimination. This discussion today is about the very powerful automobile dealers who come to the Congress of the United States and use their considerable influence to get the Members of Congress to get rid of a guidance that was put together by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They dont want the guidance because they dont want to be guided in how not to discriminate. They have gotten away for years with markups. and they have gotten away for years with targeting certain communities. For those who say that this has not happened. you are absolutely wrong. Minority communities. poor communities are targeted by every scheme and every fraudulent operation that you can think of. Whether we are talking about this markup that causes minorities to pay more for automobiles or payday loans or whether we are talking about these private. postsecondary ripoff schools. communities of color are not only targeted in these ways. but we discovered in the 2008 subprime meltdown that communities have been targeted and that minorities who have the same credit ratings as others who are given loansminorities who pay their billswere charged more in interest rates for their mortgages than others. This is not something that we are making up. The people on the opposite side of the aisle will have you believe they are working in the best interest of these minorities who continue to be ripped off. I dont have to say much. if anything. to prove that that is not true. Just take a look at who is supporting them. We are supported by the NAACP. the National Council of La Raza. the National Association of Minority Auto Dealers. the Center for Responsible Lending. the National Consumer Law Center. the Center for Working Families. the Consumers Union. There are 67 consumer organizations who are sick and tired of seeing minorities being ripped off. We are often counseled by those who say we are not pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. that we are not doing enough. Why do you think a wealth gap exists? It exists because these fraudulent schemes are supported by people like those on the other side of the aisle. I urge everyone in Congress to vote "no" on this discriminatory legislation. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I claim time in opposition to the amendment. The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. this amendment compounds one of the underlying problems that I have expressed in my opposition to H.R. 1737. While I have been and continue to be one of Congress most vocal supporters of minorityowned businesses. further expanding an already unnecessary costbenefit study concerning the impacts of nonbinding policy guidance is unproductive and only increases the likelihood that future guidance designed to actually help lenders comply with the law is further delayed or never issued. Mr. Chairman and Members. I want you to understand what is being said by the opposite side of the aisle. They basically are saying: Help me to look out for our veterans and make sure that they dont have any guidance that would impede their ability to do business. Well. I mean. that is kind of a madeup problem. This is not a problem. Simply. what is happening by the attempt to throw veterans into this is to get Members thinking "perhaps I want to support this amendment because I dont want to be thought of as not supporting veterans." When you talk about costbenefit analysis and studies. what you are talking about is: How do I tie up the agency? How do I create impediments to the agency being able to do its job. This Congress supports veterans in so many ways. We support them in their quest to do business. and we have laws on the books that will help them to successfully get into business. We support them in housing. We support them with better health care. I dont want any Members of Congress to think somehow this kind of madeup amendment is something that really they should be supporting if they want to help veterans. This is simply a way by which to get you to do something. making you think you are supporting veterans and thinking you cannot oppose it. This is an unnecessary amendment. and it gets in the way of good guidance coming out of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. so I would ask you to vote "no" on this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and Members. I am in opposition to this bill because it is simply another study. another cost to government. another unnecessary cost. While my friends on the opposite side of the aisle always claim that they are reducing the cost of government. these studies do very little. As a matter of fact. instead of a study. some of these Members who represent rural areas ought to become real advocates for their constituencies. They charge many of us as being advocates for health care. education. housing. and transportation. all of which they lack in their communities. but you never see them fighting for it. If it were not for some of us who are out there demanding better health care. better transportation systems. better education. and fighting for those who get ripped off by these fraudulent businesses every day. they wouldnt have any protection because they send too many Members to Congress who mislead them on other kinds of issues. but when it comes to their economics. you cannot find them anywhere. So. instead of a study. another study. another cost to government. why dont they become real advocates for their constituency? Why is it that we dont have transportation systems in rural communities? Why is it they have to travel miles for health care? It is because they have Representatives whom they send to Congress who are really not representing their real interests. They may get their colleagues to vote for yet another study because they dont do anything that is real and substantive for their communities. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time. As Mr. HENSARLING said. it may be redundant. but that is okay. It reinforces basically what we have been talking about in relationship to 1737. I will just take a moment to say how proud I am of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. how proud I am of Mr. Cordray. how pleased I am that this is the centerpiece of the DoddFrank reform. how pleased I am that we now have an agency that is looking out for consumers. Prior to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. our regulatory agency said their job was for safety and soundness. They forgot about the consumers. they were dropped off the agenda. Now we have a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is challenging the practices of many who claim they are in legitimate businesses. They are challenging them. They are saying to them: No longer can you rip off our consumers. No longer can you target minorities. No longer can you have discriminatory practices. Thank God for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and Members. I just heard that these bankers have the ability to understand and know whether or not the consumers have the ability to repay. That is what they told us before 2008. Unfortunately. they are the same ones now that are telling us that they can determine ability to repay. They didnt do it then. and they wont do it in the future. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan . a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois . the vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. despite what my colleague on the opposite side of the aisle. Mr. HUIZENGA. has said about our not knowing what is in the bill. we know what is in the bill. and this Congress should be frightened about what you are attempting to do with establishing this simple monetary policy rule that is unworkable. This is dangerous. Mr. Chairman. I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York . She is the ranking member of the subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises of the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for her leadership. Mr. Chairman. I rise today in opposition to H.R. 3189. Mr. Chairman. I include in the RECORD an article from The Wall Street Journal written by Alan Blinder. a former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. a professor at Princeton. and the author of a book on the financial crisis. the response. and the work ahead. This is his strong article in opposition to this bill which he feels is extremely disruptive. problematic. and just plain wrong. [From the Wall Street Journal. July 17. 2014]
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Chairman. this bill would significantly undermine the Federal Reserves independence by requiring the Fed to adopt a rulesbased approach to monetary policy. While it is true that this bill doesnt force. by law. the Fed to follow a particular formula for interest rates. it does attempt to bully the Fed into following the Republicans preferred monetary policy by hauling the Fed Chair up to testify in front of Congress every time the Fed deviates from the monetary policy rule dictated by this statute. This would have a significant chilling and killing effect on the Feds deliberations over interest rates and inappropriately interferes with the Federal Reserves independence. Lets also remember that the Taylor rule. which this bill would codify. would have performed disastrously in the financial crisis that we are still suffering from. Federal Reserve Chair Yellen testified that. during the crisis. the Taylor rule "would have performed just miserably" and would have led to a "dreadful" economic recovery. But this is not the only troubling provision in this bill. Section 4 of the bill also needlessly overhauls the membership of the Federal Open Market Committee. or FOMC. The current makeup of the FOMC. which is responsible for setting monetary policy. has served this country well for the past 100 years. So if it isnt broken. dont try to fix it. and in this case. dont make it worse. The New York Fed is responsible for implementing monetary policy. and this special role gives the New York Fed a unique understanding of monetary policy. of how markets will react to changes. and what actions are both feasible and effective. I think that it is important to remember why the regional Fed president. with responsibility for implementing monetary policy. serves as the Vice Chairman of the FOMC. Mr. Chairman. monetary policy does not end when the FOMC announces a target interest rate. Shortterm interest rates do not magically move to the FOMCs desired level. It is not that easy. Someone has to implement monetary policy by pushing shortterm interest rates toward the official target rate. and that someone is the New York Fed. As Richmond Fed President Jeff Lacker said just last week. raising interest rates is "pretty clear. You just write the statement and you must send it to" the New York Fed in New York. The New York Fed does this primarily by buying and selling Treasury securities in the markets. which influences the supply of money in the system. Because the interest rate is a function of the supply and demand for money. the New York Fed controls shortterm interest rates by influencing the supply of money in the system. This is an incredibly important job.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

The Feds ability to control shortterm interest rates is what allows the Fed to set monetary policy. If the markets didnt believe that the Fed had the ability to control shortterm interest rates. then the FOMCs statement about raising or lowering interest rates would be viewed as merely wishful thinking rather than an actual monetary policy. Mr. Chairman. this is why the New York Fed president serves as the Vice Chair of the FOMC. and I see no reason why this should change. So it is unclear what this problem is trying to fix. and I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin . the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade on the Financial Services Committee.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I cringe at the thought that the documents from the FOMC meeting of 2012 would be released to the Members of Congress. They would cause some volatility in the markets and shake up this country and cause such harm that everybody ought to be alarmed at the thought. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois . a member of the Committee on Financial Services.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chair. while I appreciate the spirit of the amendment. which seeks to ensure that the most populous regions of the country have adequate representation within the Federal Reserve system. I am concerned that the amendment does not fully contemplate the implications of adding the additional reserve districts. For example. the amendment would add a Federal Reserve District headquartered in San Francisco. a city which is already home to a Federal Reserve bank. Furthermore. the current Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has a number of branches located throughout the West. including one in Los Angeles. a city which would be home to another Federal Reserve Bank under the gentleman from Floridas amendment. The amendment also does not address how the new Reserve Banks would participate in the current rotation on the Federal Open Market Committee. a matter which is prescribed by law under section 12(a) of the Federal Reserve Act. Rather than add an additional Reserve Bank or additional Reserve Banks to the Federal Reserve system. I respectfully submit that the desired effects of this amendment to provide greater diverse range of views across our country could more usefully be achieved without increasing the number of regional Reserve Banks and within the confines of the current system. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman from Florida has expired.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I rise in opposition to the gentlemans amendment. The Acting CHAIR . The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chair. continuing time in opposition. first. the notion that the Federal Reserves largescale asset purchases did not help the economy and job growth is simply false. The forceful and sustained actions that the Federal Reserve took in recent years to bring us out of a recession and into recovery are welldocumented and cannot be overlooked. For instance. the November jobs report showed the economy added a whopping 271.000 jobs in October. pushing the unemployment rate down and. even further. to 5 percent and bringing the total number of private sector jobs created to more than 13.3 million over the past 68 months. Second. the amendments implication that the Federal Reserves monetary policy has added to the U.S. national debt is also demonstrably false. Although raising revenue is not the purpose of monetary policy. as a consequence of the Federal Reserves actions in recent years. it has generated substantial sums in the hundreds of billions of dollars which has returned to the Treasury. These sums have reduced the deficit. not contributed to it. Rather than relentlessly attacking the Federal Reserve and taking steps to undermine their independence. all of us really should be thanking them for what they have done to get our economy back on track. I yield back the balance of my time.
Date: 2015-11-18
Speaker: WATSON COLEMAN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.