Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. I am opposed.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker and Members, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I rushed to come to the floor to offer this motion to recommit because this bill, H.R. 766, is so outrageous. Under this bill, the Republicans in Congress are poised to give a get out of jail free card to big banks and Wall Street interests when it comes to fraud. Republicans propose to take away tools and investigatory powers from the Department of Justice in cases of fraud and undermine the Department of Justice's ability to prosecute mortgage fraud and other crimes to the detriment of American families and our neighbors back home.

Americans expect that the big banks that have broken the rules be held accountable for any of their financial misdeeds. However, the House Republicans are trying to give their special interest friends a break they do not need at the expense of hardworking Americans.

Shortly after I was sworn into Congress in 2007, my neighbors started to come to me and express, sincerely, about a problem that was happening. It started in Florida almost earlier than anywhere else.

As the financial crisis took hold and people began to lose their jobs or their employers cut back on their hours, they couldn't keep up with their mortgages. The deeper we dug in to it, we began to see a pattern of fraudulent practices by many in the mortgage loan business.

After 2007, I had six foreclosure prevention workshops. At that time, I will never forget looking into the eyes of my neighbors, who asked for a little bit of breathing room, a little bit of help.

We came to Washington and we asked for that help on behalf of American families, not to let them off the hook for their mortgages, but to give them a little breathing room. The response here in Washington was, instead, the huge, multibillion-dollar Wall Street bailout.

We asked, as part of that Wall Street bailout of the big banks: Could you allow homeowners to have a little more breathing room so they could stay in their homes? But, no, that couldn't be part of the multibillion-dollar Wall Street package. That was a lesson to everyone across America who really holds the power here in Washington, D.C.

Next week, I am still going to have another foreclosure prevention workshop with HOPE NOW and my local partners, because people are not healed and the fraud continues.

On Monday of this week, I sat down with my U.S. attorney in the middle district of Florida, one of the busiest districts in America, especially when it comes to fraud. Do you know what U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley said? He said we need more tools to fight fraud. They are winning big cases and big settlements when it comes to Medicare fraud and mortgage fraud and rooting out waste in the system.

So it is appalling. You bring H.R. 766 to take away those investigatory tools, the subpoena powers, for white-collar crime.

Today, House Republicans are aiming to weaken the vital financial fraud fighting law, Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act. This is irresponsible. House Republicans should be called out for it.

Republicans will eliminate the authority of thousands of Federal prosecutors to issue subpoenas for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting any big banks or other financial institutions that engage in financial fraud or other financial crimes.

So I am offering an amendment, a motion to recommit, that, instead, sides with our hardworking families back home. My amendment will prevent the legislation from taking effect until the Department of Justice and banking regulators certify that no financial institutions that are covered by the act have broken the law by taking advantage of servicemembers or by perpetrating abuses in the mortgage market. That is the very least my Republican colleagues could do.

In the meantime, American families who are appalled at this kind of action in the Congress should know that the Democrats are united for opportunity for hardworking Americans, especially for servicemembers and homeowners who are seeking to enjoy the American Dream. Americans should be appalled that Republicans want to take the financial cops off the beat and take tools away from our Department of Justice and U.S. attorneys.

I ask my House Republican colleagues to join us in working to build an economy that works for all Americans, not just for the privileged few.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on the motion. Side with American families.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source