Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Relating to ``Community Reinvestment Act Regulations''--motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues from Ohio and from New Jersey in saying that we should not allow this OCC rule, gutting the core elements of the CRA, to move forward. The Community Reinvestment Act is a landmark civil rights and anti-redlining law created to improve the welfare of low- and moderate-income Americans all over our Nation and to assess banks lending to, investing in, and serving of the communities in which they do business.

The Community Reinvestment Act works. Since its enactment in 1977, it has resulted in trillions of dollars invested in low- and moderate- income communities. It promotes fair treatment and equal access to credit and capital for Black and Brown communities, for underserved populations, and it is essential to the economic health of our country. It is a successful incentive for banks to provide mortgage lending and financial services to neighborhoods of color and low- and moderate- income communities.

There is a long legacy of racial discrimination in our Nation in financial services, and the Community Reinvestment Act has been a vital tool in helping to fight that cruel legacy. In Delaware, I have seen the benefits of the CRA firsthand. I have seen investments in affordable housing, homeownership opportunities, and economic and small business development as a result.

Discover Bank, for example, partnered with the Delaware State Housing Authority to provide mortgages to low- and moderate-income borrowers throughout the State by purchasing loans. WSFA made a $1.5 million investment in NCALL's Restoring Central Dover Initiative and a $500,000 line of credit to help build homes for new homeowners who were low- and moderate-income and gave a $1 million low-interest loan for economic development in our capital city. Capital One recently made a $20 million loan to finance the community education building in downtown Wilmington where Kuumba Academy is residing.

The OCC final rule is wrong in substance and in process. The CRA has been beneficial for more than four decades. Sure, there is some room for modernization or improvement, and it is necessary to continue to build on this monumental act, but the OCC final rule goes in exactly the wrong direction. In substance, it is unlikely to encourage investment in underresourced and overlooked regions. Instead, it expands qualifying CRA activities to include ones that don't directly benefit communities in need. This OCC rule will cause harm to current investment areas, leading to less community development in Delaware and across our Nation.

The OCC rule would allow banks to pass their CRA assessments with broad-stroke, large investments instead of smaller, targeted investments in underserved communities. In process, the OCC hasn't worked to achieve consensus with fellow Federal regulators, the Fed and the FDIC, nor with banks, community advocacy, and civil rights groups. That is why I am joining my colleagues from New Jersey, Ohio, and many other States in voting for congressional disapproval of this OCC final rule. It undermines and actively weakens this important civil rights law. We must ensure changes to the CRA strengthen the law, not weaken it, and all the related regulators and stakeholders must work together to ensure that any changes to the CRA work to combat racial inequality and to lift up communities long overlooked by traditional banking and their investment priorities.

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