Expressing Sense of Congress That Financial Institutions Should Work Proactively with Customers Affected By Shutdown of Federal Government

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 77) expressing the sense of Congress that financial institutions and other companies should work proactively with their customers affected by the shutdown of the Federal Government who may be facing short-term financial hardship and long-term damage to their creditworthiness through no fault of their own, as amended.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 77

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Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, as amended. President Trump's historic 35-day shutdown of the Federal Government has had a deeply harmful impact on millions of Americans and the U.S. economy.

While this shutdown recently came to an end, we must not forget the recovery has just begun for a wide range of affected consumers, including Federal employees, contractors, small businesses, and other individuals.

Many of those people will not receive back pay. Many of them have various financial obligations, like a mortgage, or a student loan payment that they may have missed. However, they did not cause the shutdown and should not suffer any negative consequences from it.

Financial institutions and other entities, like landlords and consumer reporting agencies, can play a key role in helping these innocent people. Given the financial hardship and emotional distress these consumers face, through no fault of their own, I introduced H. Res. 77 to send a strong message to the financial industry that they should do what they can to help these innocent consumers.

Specifically, the resolution expresses the sense of Congress that financial institutions and other entities should work proactively to help all consumers affected by the shutdown. This includes waiving fees, ceasing evictions and foreclosures, and otherwise providing forbearance for any affected consumer, as well as taking steps to ensure their creditworthiness is not impaired because of the shutdown.

Financial regulators agree that it is appropriate for financial institutions to offer prudent accommodations to help their affected customers. On January 10, I wrote to the regulators to encourage them to provide public guidance to financial institutions to underscore they could affirmatively make prudent workout arrangements consistent with safety and soundness without fear of being subject to examiner criticisms. I am glad that they made such a statement the very next day.

On January 18, I wrote a letter to various financial services trade organizations, as well as the three largest credit reporting agencies, to encourage their institutions and member companies to take all prudent and appropriate actions, including those outlined in the regulators interagency statement, to help any consumer who may be affected by the shutdown.

While I appreciate that many financial institutions have already announced various accommodations for affected consumers, I believe it is important that there be a robust effort by all financial institutions, consumer reporting agencies, and others to do what they can to help in the weeks and months to come which H. Res. 77 seeks to encourage.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. WATERS. Velazquez), who is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of the Small Business Committee.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is intended not only to help Federal employees as such, but contractors, small businesses, and others that are connected to government in ways that you may not be able to absolutely identify here. You may have folks who are consultants who are not considered contractors. You may have others who will be affected by this who maybe had a contract with the Federal Government that is now in litigation that has to be dealt with.

That is what we are intending to do, not just have a blanket, blanket, blanket, but some connection to the Federal Government.

Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, in West Virginia's Second District, we have a lot of Federal workers and contractors who are affected.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, let me say this: I know that we all want to help all of those who have been affected by the shutdown, and so I hope I was able to clarify that, so that people can help the constituents in their districts even in ways they may not have understood.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lawson).

Mr. Speaker, this shutdown has inflicted tremendous harm on consumers and the U.S. economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the initial cost for the recent shutdown is more than $11 billion and wrote: ``Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are Federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income. . . . And people who lost income and consequently borrowed money during the shutdown will see an increase in expenses as they pay interest on that debt.''

I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that it would be unfair if these innocent consumers were to suffer any negative consequences from the shutdown and that financial institutions and others should do what they can to help.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to try and give some comfort to those who think that maybe there are individuals who are not federally connected who would be getting help with this kind of approach, but that is absolutely not true. I could not list every possible way, but I am reminded that my husband was an Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. I am reminded of the families who were there. I am reminded of the children whose education we paid for while they were in that country, and the education of other families of ambassadors and diplomats for whom the Federal Government pays. We would not want to not reimburse for the education of our children in foreign countries, et cetera. So there are many ways that people who are connected to the Federal Government are impacted by this.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to Mr. McHenry: Thank you so very much for your support.

Again, this is a fine example of how both sides of the aisle can agree on a commonsense resolution that will help all those who have been impacted by this shutdown.

I am very pleased to have the support of Mr. McHenry. We have been trying desperately in the work that we do, as we began this session of Congress, to show that you can work cooperatively with both sides of the aisle working together on a bill, resolution, legislation, et cetera, that really does support and help our families and all the people in the country who are looking to us for support and leadership.

Again, I thank Mr. McHenry, and I thank all the Members on the opposite side of the aisle who get this and who understand it and whose contractors and others are on them saying: What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

This is our effort, and I appreciate their support.

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