Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding and for his leadership on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, imagine a wave of arson attacks was burning down houses and businesses across the city. And then imagine if the city council responded by trying to delay and water down new laws making arson a crime, refused to appoint a police and fire chief, and gutted funding for public safety. Well, I know that sounds farfetched, but that's exactly what the Republican majority is doing in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

It was everyday American consumers who suffered most from the financial crisis through job losses, foreclosures, declining home values, and decimated retirement accounts. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was designed to address fundamental weaknesses in the financial regulations that keep our economy safe.

The centerpiece of this law is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new agency tasked with putting consumers first, not Wall Street or other special interests.

The bills we are debating today are part of a coordinated effort by the Republicans to let Wall Street go back to business as usual. They have been trying to delay the implementation of these new rules. They have been gutting funding for the agencies that are supposed to be the cops on the Wall Street beat. And they are refusing to allow qualified nominees to even be considered for appointments.

This bill is called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Improvement Act, but it has nothing to do with improving the agency. This bill would make it easier for special interests to block or delay CFPB rules. The American people are sick and tired of gridlock; yet this bill only offers more of the same.

In the example of the fires breaking out across town, ask yourself, Mr. Chairman, who would you blame after the next building burned? Would it be the understaffed police who failed to catch the arsonist or the ill-equipped firefighters who failed to put out the fire? Or would the responsibility lie with the politicians who failed to give them the tools that they need in order to do their jobs?

I urge my colleagues to stand with consumers and oppose this legislation. We need to make sure the law takes effect and keep fighting to implement the reforms needed.

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