Date: 2016-04-14
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in opposition to H.R. 3340. which would impede the important work of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. commonly referred to as FSOC. and the Office of Financial Research. referred to as OFR. by subjecting their funding to the congressional appropriations process. This bill would also hamstring the OFRs ability to conduct impartial research by requiring the Office to solicit public comment before issuing any report. rule. or regulation. Just in case people dont understand who FSOC is. it includes the Federal Reserve. the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. the National Credit Union Association. the Securities and Exchange Commission. the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. the Federal Housing Finance Agency. and independent members with insurance expertise. chaired by the Treasury Secretary. What you have is every representation from all of these oversight and regulatory agencies coming together. working together in the best interests of this country. identifying risk and where that risk is and what to do about it. But the changes that are now being suggested or being made in this bill will have serious adverse effects on financial stability in the United States. The DoddFrank Wall Street Reform Act created FSOC to oversee and prevent threats to our financial markets. and the OFR was established to support FSOCs critical work with analytical research. DoddFrank specifically empowered both agencies with independent budgets. the same way our other banking regulators. like the Federal Reserve. the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. operate. The FSOC and OFR are funded outside of appropriations. through fees on large financial institutions. They were meant to be funded by the institutions they oversee and be shielded from congressional politics. Republicans say they want accountability by overseeing regulators budgets. but what they really want is control. so they can eliminate funding for these agencies altogether. This bill would prevent efforts to properly mitigate systemic risk. to the detriment of the entire economy. and in this Congress. it would subject the agencies to the uncertainty caused by the dysfunctional. failed Republican budget process. All we have to do is look at the struggles facing the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. They continue to be underfunded. despite dramatic changes in the markets. It is a struggle every year to secure adequate resources to supervise complex institutions to the benefit of industries. but at dramatic cost to our economy. Understandably. the administration opposes this bill. and the Presidents senior advisers would recommend a veto. The administration specifically says that subjecting these bodies to congressional appropriations would hinder their independence and would limit their ability to monitor and address threats to financial stability. In addition. this bill would interfere with OFRs work. Republicans also say they want transparency and costbenefit analysis with regard to OFRs activities. but what they really want is to give industry a leg up on our regulators. In addition. by requiring the OFR to tell the industry what it is studying. the bill would corrupt OFRs findings and could have a chilling effect on its important work. For similar reasons. I also will be urging my colleagues to oppose an amendment by Mr. ROYCE that we will consider later on today that requires detailed disclosure of the OFRs research agenda and practices. This is not the norm of any research organization and would severely limit OFRs ability to conduct rigorous. impartial analyses. Our regulators need to act with certainty. impartiality. and position resources to conduct robust oversight of our financial markets so that we can properly detect and deter systemic risk. Unfortunately. this bill will be a step back in that effort. not forward. and it is further evidence that Republicans seek to dismantle DoddFrank and the improvements we have made in our financial markets. one bill at a time. I am going to urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.