Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Office of the Comptroller of Currency Relating to ``National Banks and Federal Savings Associations As Lenders''

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. First, let me thank our chair of the Banking Committee, someone who has fought against the abuses in the financial services industry throughout his career, Senator Brown. Let me also thank Senator Van Hollen, who, again, has been one of those leaders doing great things to help people who are often taken advantage of.

Now, for millions of working Americans, one of the most dangerous things that can happen is falling victim to predatory lenders. Unscrupulous actors have always promised quick cash or credit to people with unexpected expenses or financial difficulties, only to trap them with crippling interest rates that can erase a person's life savings or even claim their homes. They are in trouble. They reach out to the lifeline, and the lifeline is a trap. Often they are trapped for years and even some for their whole lives.

That is why more than 40 States have passed laws that prohibit this behavior and placed limits on interest rates made by nonbank lenders. It runs the gamut from liberal California to conservative Texas.

Inexplicably--inexplicably--the Trump administration decided to give these predatory lenders a massive loophole to circumvent State law and once again prey on low-income Americans. Under the Trump administration's rule, so long as payday lenders found a bank to provide the cash upfront and attach their name to the transaction, interest rates in the triple digits were suddenly OK, even if the States explicitly banned it.

It is despicable and so typical of the Trump administration not caring about average folks at all and just listening to the special interests. It had devastating consequences for working families and for small businesses.

In New York, the owner of a southern food restaurant in Harlem took out a $67,000 loan from a fraudulent lender to make renovations to their restaurant. They fell behind on payments and tried to work with their lender when COVID hit and realized that their loan had an APR of 268 percent. Rather than work toward a solution, the lender went to the bank to try and foreclose on their property--their property in which they had put blood and sweat and tears--stating that the Trump rule gave them the grounds to do so. It mattered little that New York State law had a 268-percent interest rate as blatantly illegal.

So today's vote is simple. It would revoke the Trump administration's so-called true lender rule that permits predatory lenders to exploit small businesses and working Americans. In the middle of a pandemic, the last thing we should be doing is perpetrating a rule that makes it easier for payday lenders to scam working people and business owners.

With today's vote, the Senate stands up for working families and small businesses all across the country by repealing this terrible, essentially Scrooge-like rule pushed by former President Trump and his allies.

And one final point for those who say elections don't make a difference. Just look at this. Here was a rule protecting people-- States protected people. The Trump administration comes in and rips away those protections, leaving so many people bare and defenseless because they were desperate; they need the money.

Elections occur. A new Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and this horrible, horrible rule change by the Trump administration is undone. We go back to giving some help and protection to working families and small business people.

This story could be repeated not just with CRAs but up and down the line--up and down the line. Elections do make a difference, and today's vote shows one of many examples. Vote on S.J. Res.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Let me first commend my colleague from Ohio for the excellent work, not only moving this forward but the vote counting that he did, which worked with a little bit of margin of error.

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