Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, ever since its ill-advised inception and inclusion in the Dodd-Frank Act, Republicans have been largely unified about many, many issues with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Its unconstitutional, unaccountable leadership structure has been litigated before the Supreme Court. Its unaccountable funding structure--chiefly, the fact that its funding comes from the Federal Reserve and not the duly elected Members of Congress--will likely be addressed during the Court's October session.
None of us know, nor should we presume to know, what the Court will decide on the latter issue. Nevertheless, as written, the underlying bill addresses concerns with the funding structure by funding the CFPB through the regular appropriations process.
This amendment retains that provision at a level of zero.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, it is amazing to me somehow this country made it a couple hundred years without the CFPB, and now we can't wake up in the morning without it.
The CFPB operates off a fundamentally flawed assumption that our fellow Americans, the little guy, is a rube and they lack the agency and the intelligence to choose products and services that fit their needs and, instead, must be infantalized while further empowering a government that does not have their best interests at heart.
Their vilification of mundane services provided by banks and credit unions leaves our constituents with fewer and more expensive options.
Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Donalds).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I remind everybody that the CFPB was an all- Democrat conference. There were no Republicans.
Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Norman).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, this amendment reduces the amount available for salaries and expenses of the Federal Trade Commission to FY19 levels at just over $306 million.
It should come as no surprise that I disagree with the Biden administration's weaponization of the Federal Trade Commission.
Much like other Biden administration approaches to financial services regulation, the FTC policies under Chair Lina Khan threaten to disrupt entire sectors of the American economy by moving away from the consumer welfare standard toward arbitrary metrics that aim to break up companies--or stop them from merging--simply because they are too big.
I mean, we can't even be bothered, as my friend on the other side of the aisle says, with the consumer not having the capacity to determine what is in their best interests, which is affronting enough. I mean, all us dumb rubes out here in America, we don't know what the heck we are going to do without the government to tell us what to do. We can't even do that now. We just have to come up with arbitrary things that we don't like and then weigh in.
The FTC has targeted the following standard businesses and business practices, citing several concerns, including, the charging of advertising and other fees to sellers that sell on Amazon or advertise using online platforms.
Mr. Chairman, when you want to buy something, it is going to cost you something. Somebody has to pay for that. That is how business is done.
Other FTC concerns include the use of noncompete clauses in contracts, and the idea that mergers themselves--rather than downstream effects on consumers--negatively impact consumers.
Unfortunately, this government seems focused on killing successful American business instead of staying out of its way.
Most, if not all, of these practices are agreed upon in contracts between two willing parties. If you don't like what is in the contract provisions, whether it is a noncompete clause or you have to pay for your advertising, there is a simple remedy not involving the government: Just don't sign the contract. It is pretty easy.
In the last couple years, the level of FTC salaries and expenses has increased from just over $300 million to $430 million in FY23. That is $130 million in extra salaries and expenses. I don't need to tell everybody here, I hope, but we are $33.7 trillion in debt--the last time I checked the debt clock, 2 days ago--and there ain't no end in sight.
As my young daughter told me when she looked at the debt clock for the first time, she said, Well, it doesn't stop. Yeah, no kidding. It doesn't stop, because this place just keeps spending like there is no tomorrow. If we keep going, there might not be a tomorrow for this country.
I appreciate that the bill's author wrote it at a lower level than FY24. It shouldn't be too tall a request to lower that number even further to prepandemic levels when, oh, by the way, just a couple years ago, the government was still too big and was spending more money than it took in then, especially given the questionable tactics of this administration's FTC.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, the good gentleman from the State of Maryland says, well, you are on your own. You are on your own. I don't know.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PERRY. Well, the gentleman said it over and over again--you are on your own, implying that we are saying you are on your own.
In 2019, we were on our own somehow, I guess, because that is what this goes back to. Somehow, we made it to 2023, by the grace of God, I guess, because the good gentleman also refers to the twenties, so I imagine it is the 1920s.
Well, it is the 2020s, and things have changed a little bit. I know that my good friend from the other side of the aisle and I are a little bit older, but neither of us were around in 1920. Things have changed a little bit.
Now, as a young man, I pumped gas for a living. I do know the difference between gasoline and diesel and kerosene because I have a nose, and I can read.
Sure. Do mistakes happen? Do people put gasoline in diesel and diesel in gasoline? They changed the size of the nozzle, by the way, in case you can't figure that out. If you can read, and most people in America can read, they can figure it out.
The point is, we are not a bunch of rubes, and we don't need the government to figure out all this stuff for us.
We don't need the government wiping our rear end every time we go to the bathroom, but that is what you would have us believe, that that is what we need, that Americans are so dumb, they can't do it without the Federal Government.
Somehow this country survived a couple hundred years, and not only survived, became the greatest country on the planet, and it wasn't because the Federal Government was wiping our rear end the whole way.
I urge adoption, and I yield the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source