Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, I stand in strong support of H.R. 1737, and I will tell you why. It is because it is what I have done and what my family has done for almost 60 years. We are a third-generation automobile dealer.

I can tell you that it is a people business, not a White person business, not a Black person business, not a Brown person business, not a Red person business, or a Yellow person business. It is a business that is done face-to-face. I have sat across the desk from many people, lower income people, who cannot afford to get a car because they don't have the ability to negotiate the auto loan.

It is our business, and I am stunned by people who have never done what we have done who have somehow decided that we are racist and that we are overcharging people. We are doing exactly the opposite, and you are doing exactly the opposite. You are discriminating against the very people who need our help to buy cars. We negotiate the deal for them. We negotiate the cost down. So to stand here today and think that somehow this is racist--if I were a person of color, I would be offended that you would even begin to suggest that I do not understand how to negotiate and that I do not understand who to trust and who not to trust.

Three generations of Kellys have sold over 150,000 cars. You don't do that by cheating people. You don't do that by being a racist. You don't do that by discriminating against people. You do that by working with people. It is stunning in this House--America's House--that we would reduce this down to an issue of color and not of cooperation. The ability to get these people transportation--private transportation--falls on the shoulders of those who are the dealers. We negotiate in their best interest.

How stunning to think that somehow we are these predators who are just taking advantage of these poor people who don't have any financial literacy. That, my friends, ultimately, is the biggest insult you could give people of color or people of gender. It is absolutely incredible to me that we would bring it to this issue.

If you don't understand our business, please learn about it. I don't have to have a book of talking points in order to talk about what we have done our whole life.

I stand in strong support of H.R. 1737 and in strong support of common sense and the American way.

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