Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment to H.R. 1315.

The underlying bill requires that when the Financial Stability Oversight Council meets to deliberate on a CFPB ruling, those meetings would be open to the public.

My amendment takes that one step further and would require that the meeting be live-streamed over the Internet. If what we are concerned about here is transparency and openness, it makes sense that the entire American public have access to these meetings over the Internet, not just people in one city.

This is important to both supporters and critics of the CFPB. If a CFPB ruling is challenged by the FSOC, Americans should be able to observe the proceedings. My amendment will do just that. It makes the proceedings more open, transparent, and accessible. Transparency will help ensure that all parties--banks and consumers--get a fair hearing.

It is also important in terms of regaining the public trust, especially in these times. According to a Pew poll, only 22 percent of Americans trust government to do the right thing. What does that mean? That means that eight out of 10 people in this country think that government will do the wrong thing. The real cost of corruption is the deficit of trust. It is almost impossible to lead without the public's trust. What we need to focus on first and foremost is regaining that trust, principally through transparency. Therefore, I ask that this amendment be supported by both sides.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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