Consumer Protection and Recovery Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2668, the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act, and I am going to urge quick passage of this legislation.

H.R. 2668 would restore the Federal Trade Commission's authority under section 13(b) to go after those who have stolen money from consumers and enable the agency to get this money back to the consumers.

Restoring this authority is in line with bipartisan FTC leadership requests, congressional intent, and over 40 years of practice.

And restoring this authority is especially important for congressional districts like mine where many are struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table.

Prior to the Supreme Court decision, the FTC had used this essential authority to return more than $11 billion to consumers who had fallen victim to unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent practices; and that is just since 2016.

The FTC currently has pending before it investigations that could result in returning $2 billion to consumers if this is restored.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for this legislation even more urgent. During the pandemic, we have seen a rise in scams that prey on consumers' fears and financial insecurities.

Consumers who have been defrauded deserve to get their money back. We owe it to them to move quickly and pass H.R. 2668.

I thank Representative Cardenas for his hard work and leadership on this legislation and Chairwoman Schakowsky and Chairman Pallone for moving this piece of legislation today. I also thank the Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for all their hard work on this bill.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this legislation.

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