Date: 2015-04-21
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chair. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. I want the Members of the House to pay very close attention to this bill today because this bill represents tricks and games in ways that people dont often understand. But this is a prime example of how you take a good idea and mess it up. So I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1195. a measure that is. again. a shining example of how far Republicans will go to squander compromise. consensus. and good faith to advance an ideological anticonsumer agenda. The bill before us today is just the latest instance of Financial Services Committee Republicans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It makes clear their commitment to do all they can to undercut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Let me say that again. They have spent so much timeamendment after amendment. attempt after attemptto try and gut and dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. and they have gone so far with this bill to undermine our efforts to be of assistance to small businesses and include them in a stronger advisory way to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because they hate the Bureau so much. Well. again. they do all they can to undercut this Bureau. an agency with an extraordinary record of success protecting consumers. reining in bad actors. and ensuring that we do not return to the predatory practices that put this Nation on the verge of economic collapse less than 10 years ago. Mr. Chairman. as originally written. H.R. 1195 was a good and decent measure offered by my colleague. Mr. HECK from Washington State. and. again. I applaud him for his leadership. The straightforward proposal offered by Mr. HECK would codify two of the advisory boards that the CFPB voluntarily created related to community banks and credit unions. while also creating a new small business advisory board for small businesses. Along with many other requirements of the Bureau. these boards create additional avenues for input from the entities that they have been given the power to regulate under the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform Act. So here is what we are talking about. The Bureau itself had created a number of advisory committees. Mr. HECK saw room for strengthening the ability of small businesses to have an advisory role. and so he created this bill. But. because. again. my friends on the opposite side of the aisle. the Republicans. hate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau so much. they decided that they were going to play tricks and games and create an opportunity to reduce the funding so they could try and limit the Bureaus ability to do its work by adding all of these amendments. I am going to point out the tricks of these amendments as we go along here today. So in a rare show of bipartisanship. the Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 1195 by a vote of 535. Many of my Democratic colleagues supported the proposal. just as we have supported the many efforts of the CFPB to be responsive to the unique needs of small businesses. community banks. and credit unions. But. as usual. that bipartisanship was shortlived. as Chairman HENSARLING added an amendment designed to pay for this measure by undermining the CFPBs authority and independent funding. I find it ironic that this House has determined now is the time to offset the cost of legislation. Dont forget. we have the payfor kings and queens on that side of the aisle. They said. they worked for. and they made a big issue that everything must be paid for. except when they decide to try and slip something in that they dont pay for. And they have done that on this floor with some of these bills that we will be talking about. But with this bill. they decided a new kind of trick. and that is. lets find a way to take it from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because not only will this pay for it. but this will reduce their ability to do their job paying for other things. Just last week. the House majority voted to repeal the estate tax without paying for it at a staggering cost of $269 billion. At a time when far too many Americans are struggling with stagnant wages and historic income inequality. my Republican counterparts seem all too willing to add to the Nations deficit in order to pass giveaways for the richest 0.2 percent of Americans. Yet when it comes to a reasonable bill to enhance the voice of small businesses. community banks. and credit unions. which they claim to care so much about. the Republicans insist that the only way to pass the legislation is by cutting the CFPBan agency that 84 percent of smallbusiness owners support. according to polling from the smallbusiness majority. The truth of the matter is that. after several years of attempting to cap CFPB funding. the Republicans have chosen to transform Mr. HECKs bill into a vehicle to make drastic cuts to the CFPBs budget. While my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will claim otherwise. the CFPB itself estimates Chairman HENSARLINGS poison pill amendment will cut its budget by about $45 million over the next 5 years and by $100 million over the next 10 years. capping it substantially less than the amount that they are currently able to request. That means this vote is one to weaken an agency with the explicit mission of standing up for consumers and taxpayers who have been subject to the deceptive practices of unscrupulous corporations. The chairmans amendment guarantees that this otherwise bipartisan proposal will never become law. garnering significant opposition in the Senate and a veto threat from the Obama administration. who said this measure was "solely intended to impede the CFPBs ability to carry out its mission of protecting consumers in the financial markets." and further. they said. "could result in. among other things. undermining critical protections for families from abusive and predatory financial products." Mr. Chairman. Republicans could have chosen any number of offsets to account for the cost of this proposal or. as they have done so many times before. waive their CutGo rules. Make no mistake about the intent of the Hensarling amendment. It is designed to back Democrats into a corner by attaching an unacceptable provision cutting CFPBs budget to a proposal that Democrats supported in committee. The important work of the CFPB will not be undermined on our watch. and this backdoor attempt to cut its budget sets a dangerous precedent of using bipartisan bills as a way to sneak through measures that undermine the Bureaus independence and its ability to protect consumers. Mr. Chairman. we dont understand on this side of the aisle why it is that our Republican friends hate the CFPB so much and have done so much to undermine them. to undercut them. and to try to reduce their funding. They know as well as we know that prior to the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that we put into DoddFranks reforms. consumers had no protections in the Government of the United States of America. Our regulatory agencies were not doing their jobs. They say they were focused on safety and soundness. But who was working for the consumers? Nobody. And so now we have a Bureau working for the consumers that is doing a wonderful job. And here we have every attempt that you can dream of. every scheme that you can think of. being levied by our friends on the opposite side of the aisle because they want to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As I have said. this is not going to happen on our watch. They can try any trick that they want. We are on to it. With that. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.