Providing for Congressional Disapproval of A Rule Submitted By Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Waters for her leadership on the floor on this issue.

I rise in opposition to S.J. Res. 57 because it erases measures established a half-decade ago to prevent auto dealers from using discriminatory data tactics.

I also rise because it signals the majority's intention to contort the Congressional Review Act to allow it to be used on a dramatically increased scale in ways never intended.

Let me start with the policy.

When auto dealers provide financing through a third-party lender, they can increase the rate offered to the consumer and pocket the difference. Evidence suggests these dealer markups are frequently higher for minority borrowers than for similarly qualified White borrowers.

In 2013, the CFPB sought to address this problem. The agency produced guidance that clarified the fair lending requirements of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act applied to auto loans. The CFPB's action simply spelled out that dealer markups were indeed illegal if they led to discriminatory outcomes, intentional or otherwise.

It also listed some useful steps that auto dealers could take to ensure fair lending compliance. In recent years, the CFPB has fined auto dealers more than $150 million for discriminating against minority borrowers.

A resolution of disapproval is not the way to change policy in this area. Instead, we should be going through regular order with public hearings, committee consideration, and amendments to achieve a bipartisan compromise, not just throwing out words like ``junk science.'' We can settle that in regular order through a process.

In bringing this resolution to the floor, the majority is setting a dangerous new standard for the use of the Congressional Review Act, which only grants Congress the power to rescind regulations within a 60-legislative-day window. The CFPB guidance on auto lending was established in 2013, well outside the CRA's window.

Make no mistake: Using the CRA to repeal guidance from more than 5 years ago is an unprecedented expansion of the law's scope, and it will imperil thousands of Federal decisions going back decades. Let's not make it easier for minority car buyers to be exploited and discriminated against. Let's not open the door to an even more extreme and unprecedented use of the CRA.

I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against S.J. Res. 57.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source