Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Van Hollen
for his leadership on the Committee on the Budget.

As ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services, I would
like to express my serious concerns about how this budget resolution
undermines our financial stability, protection for American consumers,
and the entire housing market.

It is now 7 years since our country's financial system was rocked by
Wall Street greed and predatory lending. All of our constituents bore
witness to an economy where family members lost their jobs, friends
were made homeless, and everyone's savings, no matter how modest, were
depleted. In all, trillions of dollars of wealth vanished in the span
of a few months. When some of the money returned, it was not shared
equally.

Democrats in Congress worked to prevent a repeat of this disaster by,
among other things, putting in place the tools necessary to prevent
bailouts of megabanks and creating an independent regulator solely
tasked with defending consumers from financial harm.

Rehashing failed policies, the Republican budget resolution would
repeal these tools and bind the hands of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. The Republicans would return us to a system where a
company like AIG would once again threaten the entire financial system.
The Republicans would return us to a system where lenders can make
predatory mortgages to some of the most disadvantaged communities,
including communities of color, but that is not all.

This budget resolution goes even further. It would privatize Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac along the lines of the failed PATH Act, a terrible
piece of legislation rejected by everyone--housing advocates, realtors,
mortgage banks, academics, and, I might add, a majority of Members in
the House.

Why do we all reject it? We fear it would be the end of safe
mortgages like the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. We fear it would favor
only the big megabanks, hurting community banks. We fear that it would
further widen the wealth gap in this country.

This budget resolution is built upon a flawed foundation that harms
some of our most vulnerable communities. I urge that the Members of
this House oppose the Republican budget resolution.

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