Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, anyone tuning into the Senate floor this week is probably very confused right now, and that is because we are not debating how to address the scourge of gun violence plaguing this country, just 22 days after the horrific Parkland mass shooting and following a near-universal call from the American people for Congress to get serious about guns. They are debating it in the State legislature in Florida, but we just don't have time in the U.S. Senate to debate this overarching issue of gun safety in our country.

The American people may be confused because we are not debating the fate of the 800,000 Dreamers and the uncertainty they still face; confused because we are not debating our crumbling infrastructure which, despite repeated calls from this President, we have seen nothing resembling a credible plan from him to fix our Nation's bridges, roads, and water systems and provide broadband for rural Americans.

Democrats do have a real plan, and we should be debating that. But no. Instead, just 3 months after the passage of massive tax giveaways that handed over more than $1 trillion to the wealthiest Americans and megacorporations, we are here debating a giveaway to the world's biggest banks.

We have moved on from tax handouts to the wealthy, to taxpayer-funded bailouts for Wall Street megabanks. That is not my opinion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of this bailout bill and noted that the risk of a financial crisis would go up under this legislation.

Why in the world is Congress doing anything that increases the risk of a financial crisis? It has only been 10 years since the great recession, but Republicans seem to have forgotten about that. Maybe that is why this week is so confusing--because the backers of this bill are not talking about the risk to the entire financial system they are enabling. They have forgotten that and are only talking about the benefits to community banks.

Yes, there are some benefits. Those of us on the other side of this legislation are not arguing about that point. You could probably find consensus among all 100 Senators in this body that there is a legitimate, targeted relief we can and should provide for those community banks, but that is far from all this bill does. This community bank relief is being used to protect the giveaways for some of the biggest banks in this country.

Anyone listening to the supporters of this legislation would have no idea that 25 of the 38 largest banks in the United States will have critical Dodd-Frank rules rolled back for them. Anyone listening would have no idea that banks with up to $250 billion in assets are being told the current rules are too tough for them. These banks received $48 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout money. Those banks are not community banks.

Now, a decade after the financial collapse of 2008, we are saying it is probably OK. We are pretty sure they have learned their lessons. We are pretty sure that now the big banks will put the economic security of the country ahead of their own profits.

So the bottom line: This bill, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, will increase risks to our entire economy, and the fact that the words ``consumer protection'' are mentioned last should make clear they are simply an afterthought.

When large institutions fail--whether it is Lehman Brothers, Enron, AIG--it is everyday working consumers who get hit the hardest and pay the highest price.

There is the rule on Wall Street: On the way up, the big guys clean up; on the way down, the little guys get cleaned out. We saw that during the last financial crisis, when millions of Americans lost their jobs or their homes, and we are seeing it today, with increasingly common data breaches that compromise Americans' financial and personal information.

In recent years, devastating data breaches have become the new normal. The likes of Target, JPMorgan Chase, Yahoo, eBay, T.J.Maxx, Home Depot, and Sony are among so many who have become synonymous with massive data breaches.

Of course, there is Equifax, which is both a credit reporting agency and a data broker. Equifax's sole mission is using and profiting from consumers' most personal information, and they failed to protect that information. More than 145 million Americans' Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some instances, even driver's license numbers and credit card numbers were compromised because Equifax failed to institute even the most basic security protocols. It seems that, for the American consumer, every year is the year of the data breach, and they are sick and tired of their information falling into the wrong hands.

So as the Senate debates how to ensure financial institutions do not endanger the American economy the way they did during the financial crisis, we cannot forget our constituents' calls for new data protection rules. That is why I have filed my Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act as an amendment to this legislation. I thank Senators Blumenthal, Sanders, and Whitehouse for joining me.

My colleagues and I--Republican and Democratic alike--were outraged when we learned about the Equifax hack and how it hurts our constituents across the country, but what have we accomplished in the U.S. Senate since then? Nothing, and the threat is only growing.

We have an entire industry whose whole business model is predicated on profiting on Americans' most sensitive information. They are collecting it, storing it, selling it, and, in many instances, losing it in data hacks and breaches. Consumers don't even know who these companies are. They live in the shadows of our economy. Consumers rarely have any direct contact or business relationship with a data broker. Yet they know nearly everything about you. That is not just Social Security numbers, detailed credit histories, addresses, driver's license numbers. That is information on what you read, what music you listen to, your children, and your medical history.

In today's economy, you--the American consumer--are the commodity that is bought and sold in the open market. Right now, you have no rights. Data brokers are collecting, using, sharing Americans' personal information without your knowledge, without your consent.

Right now, American consumers are completely powerless. You can't say: Stop selling my information to any of these companies. That is unacceptable.

We need transparency; we need accountability. That is why I urge my colleagues to support my Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act. My amendment would hold data brokers accountable.

First, my amendment allows consumers to access and correct the information that data brokers hold about them. Americans should be able to stop the spread of inaccurate information that could damage them personally and financially.

Second, my amendment provides consumers with the right to stop data brokers from using, sharing, or selling their personal information for marketing purposes.

Third, my amendment requires data brokers to implement comprehensive privacy and data security programs and to provide reasonable notice in the case of breaches. Equifax should have been required to have robust security to protect Americans' information. We must stop the next Equifax.

It has now been 6 months since the public became aware of that breach, and Congress has yet to enact any major legislation in response. We are still in the data broker Wild West. American consumers are still powerless, and the next breach could be around the corner.

Here is the financial services bill that we are taking up. Here is a bill that is directly related to these banks that we are talking about. Here is an opportunity for us to begin to figure out a way of protecting consumers in this data breach area where their financial records, where their health records, where their families' records could be compromised.

What is the solution? We are moving through legislation that deals with the problems the bankers say they have, but we are not dealing with problems consumers say they have with these financial institutions. When do we take up that bill? When do we finally say to the largest companies: What are the protections? What are the safeguards that are going to be constructed so that people's personal information is not compromised, so the data brokers aren't able to create a world in which everyone's information is just part of their profit-making opportunity?

That is what we should be talking about. Let's have a big debate here. Let's ensure that each and every one of these issues is dealt with.

I urge my colleagues to support my amendment because we have to get to the heart of this Equifax issue. We have to actually deal with the world as it has changed. If the proponents of this bill say that the world has changed since the crash in 2008 and 2009, then the world has also changed with regard to the potential for the compromise of the information of every American. Let's have that debate, as well, in the same bill.

I urge that my amendment be put in order, and I urge that the Members of the Senate support it. It is time for us to give those protections to consumers, which they are crying out for. No individual consumer is crying out for this change in the banking bill, but they are crying out for protections in a system where they have no voice, no way to ensure that their own family's personal data is not compromised.

I yield back to the Chair.

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