[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MEMBER DAY
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 24, 2025
__________
Serial No. 119-30
Printed for the use of the Committee on Financial Services
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
60-989 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
FRENCH HILL, Arkansas, Chairman
BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan, Vice MAXINE WATERS, California, Ranking
Chairman Member
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas, Vice
PETE SESSIONS, Texas Ranking Member
ANN WAGNER, Missouri NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ, New York
ANDY BARR, Kentucky BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
TOM EMMER, Minnesota DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio AL GREEN, Texas
JOHN W. ROSE, Tennessee EMANUEL CLEAVER, Missouri
BRYAN STEIL, Wisconsin JAMES A. HIMES, Connecticut
WILLIAM R. TIMMONS, IV, South BILL FOSTER, Illinois
Carolina JOYCE BEATTY, Ohio
MARLIN STUTZMAN, Indiana JUAN VARGAS, California
RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina JOSH GOTTHEIMER, New Jersey
DANIEL MEUSER, Pennsylvania VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas
YOUNG KIM, California SEAN CASTEN, Illinois
BYRON DONALDS, Florida AYANNA PRESSLEY, Massachusetts
ANDREW R. GARBARINO, New York RASHIDA TLAIB, Michigan
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin RITCHIE TORRES, New York
MIKE FLOOD, Nebraska NIKEMA WILLIAMS, Georgia
MICHAEL LAWLER, New York BRITTANY PETTERSEN, Colorado
MONICA DE LA CRUZ, Texas CLEO FIELDS, Louisiana
ANDREW OGLES, Tennessee JANELLE BYNUM, Oregon
ZACHARY NUNN, Iowa SAM LICCARDO, California
LISA McCLAIN, Michigan
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
TROY DOWNING, Montana
MIKE HARIDOPOLOS, Florida
TIM MOORE, North Carolina
Ben Johnson, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. French Hill, Chairman of the Committee on Financial
Services, a U.S. Representative from Arkansas.................. 1
WITNESSES
Panel One
Hon. Troy Downing, a Representative from the State of Montana.... 2
Prepared Statement........................................... 4
Hon. Sarah McBride, a Representative from the State of Delaware.. 7
Prepared Statement........................................... 8
Hon. Nellie Pou, a Representative from the State of New Jersey... 9
Prepared Statement........................................... 11
Panel Two
Hon. Brad Sherman, a Representative from the State of California. 15
Prepared Statement........................................... 17
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver, a Representative from the State of Missouri 20
Prepared Statement........................................... 22
Hon. Al Green, a Representative from the State of Texas.......... 24
Prepared Statement........................................... 26
APPENDIX
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
Hon. Brad Sherman:
H.R. ------, the Bank Safety Act of 2024..................... 32
H.R. ------, the China Risk Reporting Act.................... 37
H.R. ------, the No Capital Gains Allowance for American
Adversaries Act............................................ 44
H.R. ------, the No China in Index Funds Act................. 50
H.R. ------, the No Federal funds in Crytpto Act............. 54
H.R. ------, the PRC Military and Human Rights Capital
Markets Sanctions Act of 2025.............................. 56
Hon. Al Green:
H.R. ------, the original legislation awarding a historic
Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to Africans and
their descendants enslaved within our country from August
20, 1619, to December 6, 1865.............................. 63
H.R. ------, the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act............. 70
H.R. ------, the Shielding Community Banks from Systemic Risk
Assessments Act............................................ 124
H.R. 3716, the Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act...... 127
H.R. ------, the Financial Compensation for Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Whistleblowers Act...... 136
H.R. 68, the Housing Fairness Act of 2024.................... 149
H.R. 166, the Fair Lending for All Act....................... 160
MEMBER DAY
----------
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Financial Services,
Washington, D.C.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:02 p.m., in
room 2128, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. French Hill
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Hill, Downing, Sherman, Green, and
Cleaver.
Chairman Hill. Yes. The Committee on Financial Services
will come to order.
Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the committee at any time.
This hearing is titled, ``Member Day.''
Without objection, all members will have 5 legislative days
within which to submit extraneous materials to the chair for
inclusion in the record.
I now recognize myself for 5 minutes for an opening
statement.
OPENING STATMENT OF HON. FRENCH HILL, CHAIRMAN OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM
ARKANSAS
Welcome to today's Member Day. We welcome all of our
members on and off the committee who are joining us to give
testimony on their bills and legislative solutions that fall
under the Financial Services Committee's jurisdiction. Your
work and experience will give members of this committee a
unique perspective into legislation that we might consider in
the course of this Congress. As we work to usher in a new era
of our financial regulatory agencies under President Trump, the
work that we are doing today is more important than ever.
Consumers need protection, small businesses and
entrepreneurs need access to capital, and financial
institutions need the opportunity to innovate. At the beginning
of the 119th Congress, I shared my vision for our committee:
right size the regulatory system for financial institutions,
particularly community banks; deliver clear rules of the road
for the digital asset ecosystem; and ensure that agencies are
focused on their core statutorily directed missions. During our
first 6 months, the committee Republicans have delivered on
this agenda by passing comprehensive digital asset legislation
for both a dollar-backed payment stable coin and an overall
financial market structure; passing over 25 bills that
strengthened community banking and expanded access to capital
for entrepreneurs; reviewing the Federal Reserve Board's
monetary policy decisions through our committee's new Task
Force on Monetary Policy, Treasury Market Resilience, and
Economic Prosperity; passing legislation to defend the United
States and its allies against China; examining housing
challenges that too many Americans face and recognizing the
limitations of previous failed housing efforts; and conducting
oversight of the Biden Administration's actions, such as
shedding light on politically motivated debanking efforts, like
Operation Choke Point 2.0 and environmental social governance
mandates.
I look forward to hearing the testimony from our panelists
today on how we can work together over the rest of this
Congress to further accomplish our committee's goals, and I
yield back.
Mr. Sherman. This will be the best speech you will hear all
week because it is the shortest.
Chairman Hill. May I recognize you for 5 minutes? Is that
all you got? You do not?
Mr. Sherman. I just gave it. I finished my speech.
Chairman Hill. The gentleman yields back for an opening
statement.
We have our witnesses today divided into two panels. For
the first panel, we welcome the testimony of Honorable Troy
Downing of Montana, Sarah McBride, Representative from
Delaware, and Hon. Nellie Poe of the State of New Jersey. We
are glad all of you are with us. We will start with
Representative Downing, and you are recognized for your oral
remarks for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HON. TROY DOWNING, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE
OF MONTANA
Mr. Downing. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am very honored to be
on this committee. I probably worked harder getting on this
committee than I did on my campaign. I wanted to make sure that
I hit the ground running with my private sector experience in
technology, in technology venture, in insurance, and then also,
I spent the last 4 years as a regulator and the insurance and
securities regulator for the State of Montana. I wanted to make
sure that I hit the ground running, and I am really excited
about the work we do on this: from ensuring the United States
remains a hotbed of innovation; to helping small businesses
access capital; to repealing senseless regulations on banks
that only reduce access to credit for those who need it most.
Today, I would like to spend my time highlighting one of my top
legislative priorities, which is eliminating the Federal
Insurance Office.
As a former regulator of insurance for the State of
Montana, I know that State-based regulation works in the
insurance industry. The McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 makes it
very clear that States have the sole regulatory authority over
the insurance industry. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act upended decades
of this practice by creating the Federal Insurance Office to
monitor all aspects of insurance. One could ask the obvious
question, if insurance is regulated by the States, why do we
have a Federal Insurance Office? Worst of all, with Federal
Insurance Office (FIO), I will call it for short, the Biden
Administration weaponized FIO, pursuing politicized data calls
on climate rather than looking for ways to make the insurance
sector operate more efficiently. They weaponized this and
usurped the States' authority doing these data calls on
domestic insurance companies rather than leaving that where it
truly belongs, with the States.
The first bill that I introduced as a Member of Congress
was H.R. 643, the Federal Insurance Office Elimination Act.
With strong support from the insurance industry, as the name
suggests, this legislation simply eliminates the Federal
Insurance Office and returns the regulation of insurance to the
States where it belongs. Let me clear: I did not come to
Washington to slash and burn. I came to Washington to advocate
for targeted regulatory reforms.
I understand the Federal Insurance office does some
important work, particularly when it comes to representing the
industry on the international stage, and I promise to make sure
that work continues. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working
with you and insurance stakeholders to advance this legislation
and preserve State-based regulation because States are best
equipped to address the insurance needs of their communities,
not the Federal Government. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Downing follows:]
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Chairman Hill. The gentleman yields back. Representative
McBride, you are recognized for 5 minutes. I should have said
at the top that each of you will be recognized for your oral
presentation, and without objection, your written statements
will be included as part of the record.
Now, Representative McBride, I yield to you.
STATEMENT OF HON. SARAH MCBRIDE, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE
STATE OF DELAWARE
Ms. McBride. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
very much to you and Ranking Member Waters for hosting this
Member hearing today. I am here to discuss my bipartisan bill,
H.R. 306, the Ending Scam Credit Repair Act, ESCRA. I would
like to thank my colleague, Representative Young Kim, for
serving as the Republican co-lead of this legislation.
We have all seen the commercials for so-called credit
repair organizations, also known as CROs, shiny promises and
toll-free numbers offering miraculous credit score boosts, but
what we do not see behind these advertisements is the
deception, the abuse, and the heartbreak. Behind the curtain
are CROs exploiting legal loopholes, charging high upfront
fees, taking advantage of confused constituents and
overwhelming financial institutions with manipulative tactics,
leaving vulnerable Americans worse off than before. Our bill
cracks down on these abusive and fraudulent practices by CROs.
It prohibits them from charging upfront fees until at least 6
months after they have provided proof of real credit score
improvement. While this protection already exists in Federal
law, CROs exploit a loophole to rip consumers off anyway. As
long as they do not use certain telemarketing sales practices,
they are able to evade this critical consumer protection. Our
bill rightfully closes that loophole.
ESCRA also prohibits CROs from jamming financial
institutions with duplicative requests, which have prevented
these institutions from addressing legitimate credit report
issues. Additionally, ESCRA strengthens State oversight, raises
penalties for bad actors, and ensures that every consumer knows
their rights, that they can do all of this on their own for
free.
Our bill does not punish legitimate services. It protects
the ethical actors who are trying to do the right thing. Both
the financial services industry and consumer advocates, groups,
that rarely align, support ESCRA. This legislation exemplifies
how Congress is supposed to work: bringing people together to
improve life for our constituents. Preventing scams is not a
partisan issue.
In Delaware, I have spoken with hardworking families who,
in moments of financial stress, turned to these companies
believing help was on the way. Instead, they were met with high
costs, false hope, and, ultimately, more debt and confusion.
That is not just immoral, it should be illegal. Thank you, and
I urge the committee to consider this much-needed bipartisan
legislation.
I yield back the remainder of my time.
[The prepared statement of Hon. McBride follows:]
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Chairman Hill. Thank you very much for your offer today.
Representative Pou, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HON. NELLIE POU, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE
OF NEW JERSEY
Ms. Pou. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and to Ranking
Member Waters. Good afternoon. It is indeed my pleasure to
offer testimony to the House Financial Services Committee as
you set your agenda for the 119th Congress.
One of the challenges that keeps my constituents up at
night is housing. New Jersey is the most densely populated
State in the union, and the need for affordable housing far
exceeds supplies. More than 200,000 affordable homes are needed
for low-income people in our State where the average price of a
home has increased 66 percent over the past 5 years. For those
who dream of being homeowners, high rental prices combined with
low housing availability make it difficult for New Jerseyans to
save enough to afford a down payment, and with some of the
highest property taxes in the country, it is difficult for many
to stay in their homes.
Renters are also struggling to keep up. Experts tell us not
to spend more than 30 percent of our income on rent, but
nationally, more than a third of households exceed that. To
meet that 30-percent metric in New Jersey, full-time workers
need to make over $30 an hour simply to afford a two-bedroom
rental. That is untenable. We have seen how the housing
affordability crisis contributes to homelessness, which
increased 24 percent in my State from 2023 to 2024, just in
that 1 year.
Beyond the affordability, accessing safe housing is also a
challenge in my district. Almost two-thirds of New Jersey
housing was built before lead-based paint was banned. My
hometown of Patterson has one of the highest levels in the
State of children with elevated blood lead levels. As you know,
lead exposures in children are linked to learning behaviors,
hearing and speech problems, which can certainly affect the
academic environment as well as their achievement. Ensuring
that every child grows up in a life free home is a smart
investment in the future and the right thing to do. I encourage
the committee to prioritize legislation that will help build
new homes and rental units, particularly in the area near
public transportation; make existing housing safer, like
through lead remediation; help low-and middle-income people
afford rent and provide for their ability to provide a down
payment, especially for seniors and families with children; and
promote fair housing practices so every American has a fair
shot at buying or renting a home.
While I am here, I would also like to encourage this
committee to renew and reform the National Flood Insurance
Program. Homeowners across my district in New Jersey, from the
Meadowlands to the Passaic River Basin, remember the
devastation from hurricanes like Irene and Sandy like it was
just yesterday. Our neighbors saw their entire lives swept away
in just an instant. I encourage the committee to advance
legislation to make the program more affordable and fair. We
need safeguards to stop premiums from being raised to
unaffordable levels. We need accurate maps and flood prevention
investments. We need to strengthen the claims process to
survivors so they can get what they need to rebuild.
Flood victims are counting on Congress to make our Flood
Insurance Program better. I look forward, Mr. Chairman, to
working with the committee on this issue and in any other way
to support the residents of the New Jersey's 9th Congressional
District. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before this
committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Pou follows:]
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Chairman Hill. Thank you, Representative Pou. Thank you for
your time today. We will now turn to member questions. Let me
begin that. Let me start with Mr. Downing.
You referenced if one were to eliminate the Federal
Insurance Office, that you thought one of the key functions
that it had was representing the United States in international
fora for insurance oversight. How would you see that being
handled were the FIO office was eliminated?
Mr. Downing. Mr. Chair, thank you for your question. On the
very narrow part of that where they are dealing with covered
contracts, with the very narrow part where we do need to deal
with international issues, I believe that could be an appointee
under Treasury. I think that could be a person that handled
that part, and that would solve the problem with life companies
that do have international exposure, and I think that person
should also take the seat that FIO currently has on Financial
Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), and so that he would also
have that insurance representation on FSOC as well as him being
the international.
The problem is that FIO historically did not consult with
the actual insurance regulators, the State regulators, and so
the NAIC, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners,
their toes were stepped on figuratively by FIO misrepresenting
what mattered to these State regulators, and so that is the
huge issue. The one thing where I do, as you pointed out,
believe we need to solve is to have that one spot on the
international representation, which I believe can be an
appointee under Treasury.
Chairman Hill. You also make the point that your view of
the insurance expert that is at Treasury now in the FIO office
is not regularly consulting with the insurance commissioners
around the country. How could they be a representative on the
Financial Stability Oversight Board if they were not taking the
pulse of our insurance commissioners around the country?
Mr. Downing. Then that is the key to the problem. The start
of my discontent as an Insurance Commissioner was that the U.S.
markets were misrepresented. So, a lot of us took the time and
effort to start attending IAIS, the International Association
of Insurance Supervisors, meetings, making sure that we were
monitoring that so that they had a voice independent of FIO.
That was the start of my discontent, but where I really
realized that there was a problem is, first of all, FIO, I do
not believe, should have subpoena power over insurance
companies. When they started to push the last administration's
aspirations on Green New Deal issues, they started doing data
calls from domestic insurers, which was disruptive and
expensive to the domestic insurers, and in my opinion, it was a
usurpation of the States' authority to regulate their own
markets.
Chairman Hill. Thank you. I appreciate that feedback very
much. Representative McBride, on your suggestions, and this
committee is frequently concerned about consumer protection and
proper disclosure, and you bring up good issues with your bill
that you proposed with Young Kim. Can you tell us just what
either the States attorneys general or just pick Delaware as an
example, just some egregious issues around the loophole you
describe, and has it gotten worse over the years due to
technology or what? What has risen to the occasion now where
you think this is important for this fix?
Ms. McBride. Thank you for that question, Mr. Chairman, and
it is a good one because the current consumer protections were
written in a period of time where the main method for the CROs
to communicate with consumers was through telephones. With the
advent of the internet, these CROs are now utilizing digital
communications, which evades the consumer protections that
exist. So the protections, while well intended, are obviously
hollow in those communication methods. We have seen actions by
both States and the Federal Government over the last several
years to challenge some of these abusive practices. The
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) did receive, I
believe, a $2 billion settlement as a result of taking to task
these CROs, but until we have clarity, until we have this
loophole closed, we are going to see a lot of constituents
continue to face the situation where they are paying these
upfront fees, and the CROs either make progress, fake progress,
the illusion of progress, or just do not even provide the
service at all.
So, I believe closing the loophole, modernizing these
protections, and guaranteeing that the financial institutions
are no longer jammed with duplicative requests so that they can
focus on actual genuine credit report issues, it will make sure
that the entire system works better.
Chairman Hill. Thank you. I appreciate that; appreciate
your advocacy. Congresswoman Pou, thank you for your advocacy
for housing. It is a top issue for all the members across the
country, particularly in high-cost markets like New Jersey, so
we look forward to having that as a priority during the course
of our committee. I yield back my questions. My friend from
California, would yield time to him, 5 minutes for questions if
you have some for this panel.
Mr. Sherman. I do. Mr. Downing, thank you for your
experience in insurance. At a very minimum, we have to get the
FIO to consult with the National Association of State Insurance
Regulators. Whether I will go as far as your bill, I am going
to have to think it through. Ms. McBride, thank you, and I want
to read your bill, but I think I am going to co-sponsor it
because you have hit on a very important area where consumers
are being abused. Ms. Pou, I share a lot of concerns from your
district. I also represent a very high-cost area, and we need
hundreds of thousands of additional housing units in Los
Angeles County and share your concerns about disasters because
I represent the Pacific Palisades.
I will point out that I have always supported flood
insurance. Even though Los Angeles is the most important city
in the world, built in a desert, but I still support flood
insurance. I would hope that this talk from the White House
that Los Angeles' horrendous natural disasters, fires should be
ignored by the Federal Government just because he does not like
our Governor is a huge problem and one that you might face
depending upon who is elected Governor of your State. I look
forward to Congress reclaiming its role and saying that when we
establish a program and it is supposed to treat all 50 States
equally, that we do not have an administration choosing to
ignore certain States for political reasons. With that, I yield
back.
Chairman Hill. The gentleman yields back. I want to thank
our first panel for your participation. Your statements will be
made part of our record. We really appreciate your advocacy,
and thanks for sharing your time today.
Give us a moment. We will suspend for a moment while we
change panels.
[Pause.]
Chairman Hill. The committee will come back to order.
What a distinction it is to see these three distinguished
members of our committee testifying on Member Day. We thank
each of you for taking time to come back to the hearing room
today. Each of you will be recognized for 5 minutes to give an
oral presentation of your testimony, and of course, without
objection, your written statements and any other material will
be made part of the record.
We will start from my left. Mr. Sherman, you are recognized
for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HON. BRAD SHERMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE
OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Sherman. I have a whole package of bills that I am sure
the chair would want to mark up. The first is the Bank Safety
Act that focuses on the problem where banks invest in long-
term, often Treasuries, and treat it as if there is no risk. If
the Treasuries go up in value, they can sell the Treasuries,
have a huge profit, and then announce bonuses for their board
and executives. If the Treasuries go down, they just do not do
anything and continue, for regulatory purposes, to list the
Treasuries at their original purchase price, and they are
allowed to do this even for Treasuries and other bond
instruments that are in the account of held-for-sale. So, they
are holding these instruments for sale, they go down in value,
and they treat them as if they still had the original value.
This is exactly what Silicon Valley Bank did, and that is why
we do not have Silicon Valley Bank. More banks will do exactly
this.
Not only that, there is a fight for capital between the
small business that wants to borrow a loan from the bank and
the bank's opportunity to invest in long-term securities on the
stock market. If they invest in business loans, there is very
little interest rate risk because they tend to be short-term
loans or adjustable rates. There is a credit risk, and the bank
examiners are all over them looking at that credit risk. If you
invest in the long-term bonds, there is an interest rate risk,
and we have a do not-look-at-it because policy toward that
interest rate risk, so banks have a strong reason to say no to
main street.
Then I have a package of bills dealing with China. One is
outside the jurisdiction of this committee, but certainly, we
should not be providing a capital gains allowance or step-up in
basis for those Americans who invest in Chinese, Russian,
Belarus, or Iranian stocks. Second, I have, and this, I think,
is one that the chairman may be very interested in, and that is
the China Risk Reporting Act. If we are going to inform
investors, we have to tell them what risk the company has
because of its involvement in China. We have seen a possible
breakdown in the China relationship in the last few months, and
China may invade Taiwan and/or blockade it, and that would
create such a rift. Investors deserve to know, but also under
this bill, the company would have to show what it is doing to
derisk and decouple. America's biggest corporations should be
looking at reducing their China risk.
The next act would say that you cannot buy stock in
companies that we are sanctioning. There are 144 companies that
the Federal Government is sanctioning where their stock is
available for purchase by Americans. Finally, is the No China
Index Funds Act. Index funds do not have the capacity to
evaluate these unique Chinese risks, and furthermore, these
index funds are investing not in Chinese stocks, but in
variable interest entities that then have a contractual
relationship from the Cayman Islands to the Chinese company.
So, you are being told that you are investing in the biggest
companies in the world, and you are not investing in Alibaba of
China. You are investing in Alibaba, Cayman Islands, a
completely different entity.
Two things on crypto because there are two things that I
think everybody in this committee can agree on in crypto.
Crypto should not be bailed out by the American taxpayer, and
we should not use taxpayer money to buy crypto assets. The
first one is the No Crypto Bailout Act. I do not want to see a
circumstance where all of a sudden, Skibidi Coin or Bitcoin or
Trump coin is diving in value, and the people who invest in it
are somehow claiming that it is a systemically important asset
and somehow, we should be bailing them out. Even crypto
advocates do not think that the taxpayer should play that role.
Second, is to say no Federal investments in crypto. We had,
just at this panel, Jay Powell say he does not have and does
not want the authority to buy crypto, but the Treasury does
have that authority. Trump has talked about a strategic Bitcoin
reserve. The fact is that we should not be investing in crypto.
It is high risk, and we are investing in a competitor to the
U.S. dollar and giving it credibility by saying that the U.S.
dollar is the world's reserve currency, and then crypto is a
reserve currency for the reserve currency. Coke would not do
that for Pepsi. We should not do it for crypto. I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Sherman follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Hill. The gentleman yields back. The distinguished
Ranking Member of our Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, Mr.
Cleaver, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HON. EMANUEL CLEAVER, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE
STATE OF MISSOURI
Mr. Cleaver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate very
much you giving us an opportunity to present our ideas, and I
currently, as you mentioned, serve as Ranking Member on the
Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance. In the 119th Congress,
the subcommittee held three housing hearings. Several
bipartisan bills, including legislation I have worked on to
address exclusionary zoning, support manufactured housing, and
the preservation of rural housing, were noticed.
The affordable housing crisis is fundamentally a supply and
demand imbalance. Communities of all sizes need stronger public
and private partnerships to preserve existing units and to
bring millions of more new units online. On April 8, the
Oversight Committee of this committee also heard from the
Housing of Urban Development Inspector General (HUD IG). Much
of the IG's testimony spoke to HUD's lack of capacity to
address challenges. I echo Ranking Member Waters in stressing
the importance of HUD Secretary Turner appearing before our
members, before this committee.
Last Congress, during a Democratic Administration, I
supported the HUD Accountability Act, which would require
annual testimony from the HUD Secretary. This Congress, during
a Republican Administration, Congressman Lawler and I
introduced this legislation. Cuts to HUD programs and staff are
damaging and create bottlenecks, not efficiency. Congress needs
to provide the necessary oversight, improvements and resources.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also increases access to
housing in rural areas. Congressman Nunn of Iowa and I are
leading the Rural Housing Service Reform Act, which would save
USDA affordable homeownership and rental programs. These are
constructive directions for the committee.
Importantly, there is a bipartisan agreement that housing
has been overregulated. State and local regulations drive up
costs and make Federal investments less effective. I am sure
that you are probably surprised to hear someone from my
background saying that, but the Federal Government has also
conditioned investments on compliance with massive amounts of
additional regulations. In some cases, the cost of these
requirements exceeds the funding provided. Housing programs
include regulations related to achieving public benefits,
related to such issues as minimum wage rates, environmental
protection, or the sourcing of materials.
I support positive outcomes in these areas. However, I
distinguish process from overcomes. The compliance process for
achieving these outcomes is so burdensome that it can take
years and exorbitant amounts of time and capital to execute an
affordable housing project. This is something that Ezra Klein
and Derek Thompson wrote at length about in their million
seller book called ``Abundance.'' I strongly urge every one of
my colleagues to read that book.
In many cases, particularly when uncoordinated rules for
each different program and agency are placed on small
nonprofits, public housing authorities and minority housing
developers, the ancillary public goals are not meaningfully
advanced or, in many cases, being harmed. This committee should
provide maximum support to efforts led by subcommittee Chair
Flood and myself to strengthen HUD programs. This includes
efforts to update HUD's Home and Community Development Black
Grant (CDBG) programs. These programs are critically important
to increasing housing supply in local communities. We have
advocates, industry, and government in agreement that
commonsense reforms can be made. I urge this committee to help
facilitate constructive engagement with the administration in
that process.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to
testify.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Cleaver follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Hill. Thank you, Mr. Cleaver. Mr. Cleaver yields
back. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green, you are recognized
for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF HON. AL GREEN, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF
TEXAS
Mr. Green. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I greatly appreciate
this privilege and would like to indicate that there are
several pieces of legislation pending.
The original legislation awarding a Congressional Gold
Medal collectively to Africans and their descendants enslaved
in our country from August 20, 1619, to December 6, 1865. Mr.
Chairman, in 1956, Congress, in its infinite wisdom, awarded a
Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers. We have never
given the proper respect that they have richly earned by virtue
of sacrificing their lives for this country, and I am talking
about the enslaved. I think it is time that they receive
treatment similar to what the Confederate soldiers received: a
Congressional Gold Medal. By the way, this is not required
reparations. This is a means of saying we are expressing our
appreciation.
The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act is a piece of
legislation that Ms. Wagner and I co-authored. She initially
had it and passed it to me, and we passed it back and forth. We
passed it out of the House. The most significant thing that the
legislation does is this: it codifies a process. Currently,
after each disaster, we reinvent the wheel. We lose
institutional knowledge. It makes it difficult to move
efficaciously, quickly to deal with some of the needs of people
who are suffering from a disaster that they did not cause.
The Shielding Community Banks from Systemic Risk Assessment
Act, this is a piece of legislation that would help us with the
small banks. The community banks, they do not create these huge
problems that impact society, cause these systemic risks, but
they have to pay for the actions of others, and that seems to
be fairly consistent. I am sure you will find an example
someplace where they were involved to some extent, but I think
that we should do something to help these small banks.
The Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act would require
financial regulators to issue a report following the use of a
systemic risk exception. We just had this piece of legislation
before the committee, and I am very honored to say that Mr.
Barr was very instrumental in helping this to get back to the
committee and to get passed at the committee level. My trust
and belief are that we should get it to the floor. This is a
very valuable piece of legislation. It gives the public
information about things that we should know, and they need to
know as well.
The Financial Compensation for the CFPB Whistleblowers Act
would require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to
provide awards to whistleblowers who come forward with evidence
of wrongdoing. It really is legislation that would incentivize
whistleblowers to reveal evidence of unlawful activity, and I
think that we all want to make sure that people who commit
crimes--make sure they are prosecuted.
The Housing Fairness Act, another piece of legislation of
importance, would expand the efforts to detect and address
discrimination. There is still invidious discrimination in
housing, and we have a program of testing with this legislation
that would help us identify and to give people, first, a chance
to correct their behavior, and if not, then some additional
action can be taken, but the identification usually is enough
to cause people to see that they should atone for
transgressions.
The Fair Lending for All Act would create an Office of Fair
Lending and Testing within the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau to expose invidious discrimination and hold predatory
financial institutions and individuals accountable. This office
would test financial institutions for compliance with the Equal
Credit Opportunity Act, and this is quite similar to how the
Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair
Housing and Equal Opportunity tests for compliance with the
Fair Housing Act.
I close with this, Mr. Chairman. All of this, and I think
it is all important, but given that the people who were
enslaved for almost 2-and-a-half centuries have never been
respected, it just seems to me that it is about time for us to
accord them respect, and what better way than to do for them
what we did for the Confederate soldiers. I thank you. I yield
back.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Green follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Hill. The gentleman yields back. Now let us turn
to questions, and let me start first with you, Mr. Green. I
want to thank you for your work for, I guess, 6 or 8 years,
maybe longer, with Congresswoman Wagner about this HUD disaster
fund issue, which is disaster recovery money that is in the HUD
Bureau, in our jurisdiction. As it turns out, as you well know,
but I think the record should show, it has never been
authorized. It was essentially at one time a supplemental
appropriation, and we have obviously refilled its coffers since
after disasters, but I want to commend you on trying to put
some clearer, more transparent rules of the road around this
program and how it might work. I appreciate the gentlewoman
from Missouri's work as well.
Is there some way it could be beneficial before a disaster
in terms of a use by a city as opposed to only after a
disaster? So much of our resilience money is only spent or
targeted after the fact, and then from the testimony in this
committee, frequently, the auditing on that money and the
supervision of that money and the oversight of that money is
frequently lacking. In your conversations, is there any way
that we could think about that resilience funding being
available to a city before they actually had a disaster?
Mr. Green. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you again
for acknowledging Ms. Wagner. She was a real champion in
working to get this done. This legislation, currently, would
help the smaller cities understand the process. I think that is
important, too, because when the disaster hits, they find
themselves trying to compile information, acquire empirical
evidence of what they should do, and it is very difficult at
that time when you have this disaster that you are dealing with
to acquire information. Now, a city like Houston, which is
huge, we have departments that can deal with these things, but
they still need the help that we can accord.
I think that, yes, to be more specific, we should, if we
can, keep a coffer that has an amount of funds in it, to be
determined, that would give us the opportunity to move quickly
with the immediate needs.
Chairman Hill. Mm-hmm.
Mr. Green. The immediate needs, and thereafter, we can deal
with the long-term needs. I would be more than honored to work
with the chairman to facilitate the development of this idea
such that we might bring it to the committee at some point in
the future.
Chairman Hill. Thank you, and I had one other follow up
question for you on your community bank Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assessment bill. Tell me again how
it is structured. Does it lower the assessments for the smaller
community banks and shift those assessment to the larger banks?
I was not quite sure how it was structured.
Mr. Green. I do not want to say it shifts it.
Chairman Hill. Okay.
Mr. Green. I want to believe that it is placed where it
should be----
Chairman Hill. Mm-hmm.
Mr. Green [continuing]. because the community banks, they
are not really creating systemic risk. They are small. Now
granted, in number, they are large, but in terms of being
capitalized compared to the major banks, they are
insignificant. I just think that they do not assume
responsibility for things that they do not create.
Chairman Hill. I appreciate that. I want to thank each of
you for your advocacy today for these specific bill ideas, from
foreign policy to crypto, to housing to housing affordability,
to fair lending and community banks. I want to thank you each
and let me yield back. Mr. Downing, do you have any questions?
Mr. Downing. No questions.
Chairman Hill. Mr. Downing does not have any questions, so
I want to thank our panel for being with us this afternoon.
Without objection, all members will have 5 legislative days
to submit additional written questions to the witnesses to the
chair. The questions will be forwarded to the witnesses for the
response. Witnesses, please respond no later than July 29,
2025.
[The information referred to can be found in the appendix.]
Chairman Hill. With that, our Member Day hearing is
adjourned.
Mr. Green. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Whereupon, at 3:45 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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