Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and the waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, I move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget resolutions for purposes of S.

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I am asking my colleagues to waive this budget point of order.

In order to offset the Congressional Budget Office's estimated increase in Federal deficits due to the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, the bill contains a provision that reduces the amount of discretionary surplus the Federal Reserve may maintain from $7.5 billion to $6.825 billion.

The Federal Reserve surplus funds have been used in the past to pay for bipartisan legislation emanating from committees that do not have jurisdiction over the Federal Reserve. Unlike those past instances, these funds will be used to offset costs of legislation emanating from the Banking Committee.

In order to provide meaningful relief for consumers, community banks, credit unions, midsized banks and regional banks, I urge my colleagues to waive this point of order.

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, the time to vote has come, and we are a few minutes over. This is one of those times when the Senate is on a very tight timeline, so I will have the majority of my speech put into the Record. I just wanted to respond in one quick way to some of the comments my colleague from Ohio has just made.

A lot of attacks on this floor have been made saying that this bill rolls back the regulatory authority of the Federal Reserve and exposes all of our large banks to much greater risk or much less supervision than they would have had before and on and on. We knew these attacks were coming. They came in the Banking Committee when we had the markup on this bill.

Basically, I want to read a series of questions and answers I had with the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve about these types of allegations being made about the bill--a bill which is designed to deal with credit unions and community banks and the smaller sector of our economy, not the big banks--all these attacks about rolling back the protections against big banks.

I asked Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell whether it was accurate, if this bill were passed, that the Federal Reserve would still be required to conduct supervisory stress tests for any bank with total assets between $150 billion and $250 billion to ensure that it has enough capital to weather economic downturns.

He answered: Yes, it is.

I asked, if this bill were passed, whether it was accurate that the Federal Reserve would still have sufficient authority to apply any prudential standard--let me repeat that--any prudential standard to a bank with between $100 billion and $250 billion in total assets if the Fed determined that was appropriate.

He answered: Yes, that is true.

I asked whether it was accurate that this bill does not weaken oversight of the largest globally systemic banks.

He answered, correctly, that yes, that was correct.

Then I asked whether it was accurate that the Federal Reserve applies enhanced standards to international banks based on their global total consolidated assets--meaning that our bill would not exempt banks like Deutsche Bank and Santander from section 165 of Dodd-Frank.

He answered: That is correct.

I want to repeat this, because this keeps coming up. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve said that this bill does not exempt G-SIB foreign banks, such as Deutsche Bank and Santander, and that we do not eliminate the ability of our Federal Reserve to correctly and properly supervise our banks.

We are going to go back and forth over this, but this bill is designed to protect community banks and credit unions. That is why we have such bipartisan support for it.

Mr. President, we have been able to highlight the benefits of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act on the Senate Floor over the last week, and I am glad we have the opportunity to continue that discussion this week.

I have been very encouraged by my colleagues' support for this critical piece of legislation. I thank each of those Senators, including many members of the Banking Committee, for their support, interest, and involvement in the many discussions, hearings, and personal conversations we have had to improve this bill. I also thank all those who voted on the motion to invoke cloture on substitute amendment No. 2151, as modified, to S. 2155.

Since the bill passed out of the Banking Committee, supporters have worked in good faith to include provisions that different Members have offered, including those who do not support the bill.

The substitute amendment we offered last week reflects the additional provisions that the bill's supporters were able to agree on, collectively.

To ensure that everyone understands what the substitute amendment does, let me take a few minutes to explain the changes from the bill that passed out of committee.

This amendment makes both technical and substantive changes to further improve economic growth, regulatory relief, and consumer protections.

This substitute makes changes to the appraisal provision in our bill to add definitions and provide detail on criteria for efforts to document and contact appraisers.

It also strengthens the HMDA provision by adding a ``bad actor'' prohibition, limiting the universe of lenders who can take advantage of the relief to those that do not have ratings of ``need to improve'' on their last two CRA exams or one rating of ``substantial non- compliance'' on their last CRA exam.

It adds further consumer protections on who can take advantage of transitional licenses and adds liability protections for government officials who carry out their official duties.

It modifies a provision by raising the threshold from $15 billion to $20 billion for those Federal savings associations that wish to take advantage of charter conversions.

It modifies the existing provision dealing with applying the Expedited Funds Availability Act, which governs bank deposit holds, to add Guam to the list of American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands which would receive the benefit.

It clarifies the current international insurance provision so that the Treasury, Fed, and Federal Insurance Office report to Congress on studies regarding consumer and market impact of international insurance capital standards is only required with respect to final standards.

It also changes the date at which point Treasury and Fed reporting requirements on international insurance regulatory and supervisory forums terminate from December 31, 2022, to December 31, 2024--this aligns with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors' planned timeframe for implementing its insurance capital standard.

It promotes construction and development on Main Street by ensuring that the Federal Reserve appropriately treats certain commercial real estate loans in its rules.

It helps reduce identity fraud by directing the Social Security Administration to accept electronic signatures as consumer consent for financial institutions trying to verify customer ID and root out synthetic ID fraud.

It uses part of the Fed's discretionary surplus as a pay-for.

It expands the existing credit freeze provisions by increasing the circumstances where Americans can get a free credit freeze, and clarifies that an incapacitated person receives the same protections as a minor under the age of 16.

It also adds a provision that gives free and ongoing credit monitoring to Active Duty servicemembers who are serving and sacrificing for our country.

It adds a provision which helps protect veterans from predatory lending by requiring VA lenders to demonstrate a material benefit to consumers when refinancing their mortgages.

It adds a section requiring Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to establish a process for validating and approving credit score models, and requires FHFA to establish standards and criteria for such processes.

The language requires that any credit score model must meet a series of criteria related to predictiveness, accuracy, safety and soundness, and other metrics in order to be approved, to ensure that this will not undermine the quality of underwriting at Fannie and Freddie.

The substitute adds important reports: a GAO report on Puerto Rico foreclosures; and a report on children's lead-based paint hazard prevention and abatement, which is a serious issue in many of our States.

It also makes permanent certain protections for members of uniformed services under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

It also makes further clarifications to the section about enhanced supervision and prudential standards for certain banks, by lowering the asset threshold above which banks have to pay assessments and requiring the Fed to adjust such charges to reflect the fact that the cost of supervision and regulation of certain institutions will be reduced as a result of this legislation.

It also clarifies that this bill does not affect the legal effect of the Federal Reserve's final rule on foreign banking organizations, and the bill does not limit the Federal Reserve's legal authority to require intermediate holding companies, apply enhanced prudential standards, or tailor regulations for certain foreign banking organizations.

The amendment also adds a new Encouraging Capital Formation title, which includes five capital formation and securities bills that passed the Senate by unanimous consent last year, as well as a bill to help companies take advantage of further ways to raise capital and ease burdens on certain publicly traded investment companies.

Lastly, the bill provides additional protections for borrowers and cosigners of private student loans, and requires the Treasury Department to study and promulgate best practices for higher education financial literacy.

All of these additions improve the bill and strengthen the core themes of the existing provisions; namely, improving economic growth, regulatory relief, and consumer protections.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this amendment. Amendment No. 2152 Withdrawn

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. Chairman, before I yield, I withdraw my amendment No. 2152.

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Mr. CRAPO. today; that when the Senate reconvenes, all postcloture time be considered expired and the Senate vote on the motion to waive; and that following the vote on the motion to waive, the bill be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended.

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