Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CASE. Madam Chair, I rise in support of my amendment to H.R. 1500 which would ensure at least one member of the Consumer Advisory Board be an expert in privacy.

Over a decade ago, predatory lending and lax regulation led to one of the most devastating financial crises in our lifetime or any lifetime. The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, or CFPB, was established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in response to this crisis. The CFPB is tasked with implementing and enforcing federal consumer financial laws while ensuring consumer access to fair, transparent, and competitive financial products and services.

Under former Director Richard Cordray, the CFPB returned roughly $12 billion to over 30 million consumers who fell victim to deceptive financial practices, handled over 1.2 million consumer complaints about financial firms, reined in payday lenders, examined mortgage and student loan servicers, combated discrimination in lending, and held a number of bad actors accountable.

Under this administration, the CFPB's leadership ordered a number of changes that weakened its ability to protect consumers. This included firing members of the Consumer Advisory Board and reducing the size of the board. This hurt the CFPB's ability to help and protect consumers.

The board's experts help inform the CFPB about emerging practices and trends in the consumer finance industry and share analysis and recommendations. It helps ensure the government fully leverages expertise of those from outside of government.

H.R. 1500, the Consumers First Act, would reverse anticonsumer changes taken by the administration and strengthen the Consumer Advisory Board. The bill would require the CFPB director to appoint at least 25 members, at least two-thirds of which would have to represent consumers, including fair lending and civil rights experts and representatives of communities affected by high-priced mortgages. My amendment would require at least one member of that board to be a demonstrated expert in privacy.

My amendment is needed because the interplay of privacy and technology in the financial landscape has changed dramatically since 2008. As internet connectivity increases, Americans now transmit more of their personal and financial information on the internet at exponentially higher rates than in the past, and their data is at risk.

Since 2013 there have been at least 10 major data breaches compromising billions of consumers. A number of these breaches exposed consumers' financial information. For example, Marriott International's 2018 breach compromised the personal information of some 500 million customers, including credit card numbers of more than 100 million. In 2017 Equifax was breached, exposing the personal information of 143 million consumers, including Social Security numbers. In 2014 the Nation's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, was breached, compromising 76 million, or two in three U.S. households. The list, unfortunately, goes on and on.

In the wake of these high-profile data breaches and privacy violations, consumers are increasingly concerned about their online personal and financial privacy. A recent Pew Research Center public opinion study found that over half feel that their personal information is less secure than it was just 5 years ago, and 68 percent of internet users believe current laws are not good enough in protecting people's privacy online.

Our consumers are demanding action on the issue of privacy, and our privacy laws and enforcement significantly lag much of the rest of the world. Obviously, the current system is not working to ensure that personal privacy is protected.

My amendment responds to these concerns by ensuring that an expert in consumer privacy is part of the membership of the CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board. It will make sure that these concerns are front and center at the table as the board provides its advice to the CFPB.

My amendment is a small, yet important, nonpartisan amendment in response to the growing movement in Congress and across the Nation and world to protect consumers' personal data and basic right of privacy.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CASE. Madam Chair, I appreciate the comments o my colleague very much and the support. This clearly demonstrates that when it comes to consumer privacy, there is no party involved. We are all concerned about it regardless of our party. So I appreciate those comments.

I would only add that certainly this member of the board should deal not only with data breaches, but also with the basic rules and regulations that govern privacy. We need a large, massive, and increased broad government debate over our own rules on privacy in this country where, in fact, we do lag the rest of the world.

Madam Chair, I appreciate, again, my colleague's support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source