Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1500, a bill that will ensure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the necessary tools to defend American consumers.

The CFPB was created in the wake of the financial crisis as consumers fell victim to unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices.

My Republican colleagues have tried to undermine it for nearly a decade since its arrival. The Trump administration has worked to kneecap the CFPB, using a strategy that prioritizes big businesses over individual consumers. As can be seen, enforcement has decreased by 75 percent at the CFPB.

H.R. 1500 will fortify the CFPB's core mission to protect consumers and remedy the Trump administration's harmful anticonsumer tactics.

My home district lies in California's Inland Empire, and the constituents I serve understand the importance of CFPB's mission all too well. At the height of the housing crisis, one in five local households were behind on their mortgages. In 2008 alone, over 30,000 families from Riverside County lost their homes to foreclosure.

This was, however, by Wall Street's design. In no other area of the country did subprime loans aggressively pushed by lenders claim a bigger proportion of the overall mortgage market. This bill ensures the CFPB is equipped and empowered to fight this type of predatory lending and much more.

Simply put, the Consumers First Act ensures that CFPB maintains the authority and resources to do its job and proactively protect consumers from unfair, misleading, and abusive practices.

Let's pass this bill to make crystal clear that the CFPB truly does have the back of every single American consumer. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 1500.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source