[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 52 (Monday, April 13, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2125-H2126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1645
SAFE ACT CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVILEGE ENHANCEMENT ACT
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1480) to ensure access to certain information for financial
services
[[Page H2126]]
industry regulators, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1480
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``SAFE Act Confidentiality
and Privilege Enhancement Act''.
SEC. 2. CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION SHARED BETWEEN STATE
AND FEDERAL FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORS.
Section 1512(a) of the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of
2008 (12 U.S.C. 5111(a)) is amended by inserting ``or
financial services'' before ``industry''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
Capuano) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and add extraneous materials on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may
consume.
The SAFE Act is a simple, bipartisan bill that encourages
information-sharing between Federal and State regulators.
Ensuring the confidentiality of information provided to the National
Mortgage Licensing System encourages its uses, which better protects
consumers from bad actors who switch States for licensing purposes to
evade scrutiny.
This legislation provides assurance for financial institutions that
privileged information shared between Federal banking regulators and
State regulatory agencies will be protected and remain confidential.
This will encourage a greater amount of sharing between institutions
and their regulators, and will allow our Nation's financial regulators
to do their jobs to ensure that our financial institutions are
operating lawfully, while, at the same time, able to offer consumer
credit products that are critical to Americans to finance their
everyday purchases and start small businesses.
The NMLS is used by regulators in all 50 States, and it is supported
by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
This bill passed the House on suspension last Congress, and it passed
the Senate by unanimous consent.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, on most social issues, I consider myself a
liberal. On most fiscal matters, I consider myself a conservative in
the true sense of the word, not the new sense of the word, meaning that
you should pay for those things that you want.
When it comes to privacy matters, I consider myself a proud
Libertarian. There is absolutely no reason for anyone who doesn't need
information that I don't want them to have to get, period. It is my
information, my information to share only with those with whom I wish
to share it.
This bill takes one step further towards keeping my information
private and confidential between me and those people I seek to share it
with. It is a great bill. I look forward to voting for it.
This information is necessary to be shared to simply keep our
financial services system going, but there is no reason whatsoever to
allow it to be nonconfidential and to be spread around and be available
to anybody who might want to look at it.
I support the passage of this bill. I congratulate Mr. Dold for
putting this forward for us to vote on, and I yield back the balance of
my time.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to yield as much time as
he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold), the primary
author of this bill, who has worked tirelessly in this area.
Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank the chairman for his
leadership. I want to thank my good friend from Massachusetts, and I
also want to comment on the fact that we are delighted that you are a
Libertarian on some of these things.
As we look, Mr. Speaker, at H.R. 1480, the SAFE Act Confidentiality
and Privilege Enhancement Act, it preserves the ability of the State
and Federal financial regulators to share information regarding
consumer financial services businesses that are licensed at the State
level in the National Mortgage Licensing System without losing the
privilege and confidentiality protections provided by State and Federal
law.
This is a bipartisan bill that promotes smart and efficient
regulation among State regulators. It ensures that State regulators can
talk to their colleagues across State lines regarding multistate
financial service entities without losing traditional privilege and
constitutionality protections.
These amendments are needed due to the unintended gap in the existing
National Mortgage Licensing System statute. As State regulators have
expanded their use of the NMLS in order to enhance consumer
protections, to combat fraud, increase uniformity, and reduce
regulatory burdens in licensing processes, privacy protections have not
kept up.
This is a commonsense bill that provides regulators with the
certainty that they can continue to share information and collaborate
with their colleagues across State lines.
Protecting the integrity of the National Mortgage Licensing System is
important because it better protects consumers from bad actors who
switch States for licensing purposes to evade scrutiny.
This is ensuring, Mr. Speaker, smart regulations.
Again, I talk to people all around my district. The fact is that we
are not against regulations. We just want our regulations to be smart
and tailored, and this is one of those things that, again, working
across the aisle and trying to find common ground, this is one that I
believe that we can agree on.
H.R. 1480 does not create any new privilege or confidentiality
rights. It merely ensures that the existing privilege and
confidentiality protections are retained when information is shared
through the National Mortgaging Licensing System so that regulators can
share information and communicate.
H.R. 1480 has received support from the Conference of State Bank
Supervisors, the Credit Union National Association, and the Illinois
Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, in my home State.
The SAFE Act Confidentiality and Privilege Enhancement Act passed out
of this committee, out of the Financial Services Committee, 58-0. I
certainly urge my colleagues to support this bill, and look forward to
its passage.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, this truly is a bipartisan bill. It is a
commonsense bill. I think the whole group of bills that we have seen
this afternoon will go a long way to helping keep commonsense
regulations; at the same time, making sure the consumers are protected.
So I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1480.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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