Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to one of the leaders on this committee, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Ms. WATERS. First, I would like to take a moment to thank Barney Frank for his leadership in establishing one of the most important pieces of legislation that has ever happened in the Congress of the United States of America, and that is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I am so pleased to have been able to serve, not only on the Financial Services Committee, but on the conference committee that worked through all of the difficulty of creating this bureau to give protection to consumers who had been forgotten, who had been dropped off of the regulatory agency's agenda, who had not been protected because they simply said that they had the responsibility for safety and soundness and that they didn't know much about consumer protection. They failed on both, but our consumers have been harmed.

Mr. Chairman, the CFPB is needed because it is very clear that our current regulatory framework inadequately protects consumers. Just look at the wrongful foreclosures on veterans, the robo-signings on foreclosure documents, the 500 percent interest rates on payday loans. The list of abuses goes on and on and on.

This bill would undermine the CFPB by creating a commission instead of a director, making it easier for the Financial Stability Oversight Council to override CFPB rules and to delay the transfer date for the CFPB until there is a director confirmed by the Senate. In short, this bill would bring us back to the days when harmful financial products and practices went unchecked and when consumers paid the price in the form of high interest rates, predatory subprime mortgages, and bad credit card bills.

We've seen what happens when our banking regulators are tasked with both consumer protection and bank safety and soundness responsibilities. The pro-bank, anti-consumer stance wins every time. That's why we created CFPB, to make sure the consumer voices aren't shouted down by the industry and that an independent agency is beholden to consumers and not CEOs.

A strong regulator, one which focused solely on consumer safety and championed simpler disclosure and products, could have prevented the current economic crisis and the ensuing foreclosures, bankruptcies, and defaults. Preventing the CFPB from doing its work, as this bill would, would only hurt America's consumers and turn our economy upside down. I oppose this bill.

Mr. Chairman and Members, it is evident what was needed, and it is inconceivable that at this point in time we could have legislation that would undermine the good work of the conference committee of the Dodd-Frank legislation that is in the best interest of all Americans, all consumers.

I ask for a ``no'' vote on this bill.

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