[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 192 (Monday, November 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7327-S7328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Mr. President, another test we face right now to make it clear to the
American people whose side we are on is unfolding at the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau. Our job is to look out for the people we
serve, not Wall Street banks and corporations trying to scam consumers.
That is why we must protect the independence of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau.
In 2008, when the big banks crashed the economy, which cost millions
of Americans their homes and jobs, it was obvious that no one was
looking out for the public. While predatory lenders were getting rich
on families who were taking out a second mortgage to make ends meet,
the people who were supposed to be looking out for those families were
asleep at the switch. That is why we passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
reform law and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with
one mission: to protect consumers, to stand up for bank customers,
homeowners, servicemembers and veterans, student loan borrowers and
seniors, and all the millions of Americans who, when it comes to the
financial marketplace, need somebody on their side.
With these transactions that people do in an increasingly complex
financial world, with all the fine print and all the documents people
sign to buy a home or get a credit card or sign up for an account with
a bank or insurance company, the public needs somebody on their side.
They need someone to look out for them who is not obedient to the Wall
Street bottom line.
Some in this body have tried to roll back the Dodd-Frank rules that
protect taxpayers and homeowners from Wall Street abuses. It is all the
more important that Americans have a strong, independent consumer
protection bureau on their side.
The Bureau's actions have resulted in $12 billion in relief for more
than 29 million American consumers who had been ripped off by debt
collectors, for-profit colleges, and payday lenders. Some were cheated
by almost iconic American companies, such as Wells Fargo and Equifax.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a special Office of
Servicemember Affairs run by Holly Petraeus. They took on the payday
lenders and car title lenders that targeted servicemembers on military
bases across the country. I know firsthand. I know up close how they do
that. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base--the largest single site
employer in the State of Ohio, near Dayton--the predators, payday
lenders, and financial service predators set up shop right outside the
base. They can't set up shop on the base. They prey on people who are a
little less sophisticated financially. They don't have a lot of money,
they are young, and in many cases, they are servicemembers who aren't
paid very well and are already struggling. For somebody who is
overseas--they prey on the spouse when the person is overseas. They
prey on them, and when they are overseas, they prey on their families.
Even Sheila Bair, a former George W. Bush appointee, was on TV this
morning talking about how important this agency's work is to working
families.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been able to do all this
because it is not beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and is
not beholden to the people in this body. It is strong because it is
independent.
The people in this body who want to take away the CFPB say that it is
a bureaucracy that is not accountable to anybody. Do you know what they
mean? When I hear my friends in the Banking Committee say that the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not accountable to anybody,
what do they mean? They mean the banks can't influence them, the big
Wall Street officials can't influence them, the Members of Congress who
shill for the banks can't influence them, and the Members of Congress
who front for the big Wall Street firms can't influence them. That is
what they mean when they say it is not accountable. The Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau
[[Page S7328]]
is accountable to the public. It is accountable to the people who get
hurt by some of these financial transactions.
A couple of weeks ago, the administration sent the Vice President
down here under the cover of night. We know that when the Vice
President comes down here to the Senate floor, it is about to be a
victory for Wall Street, and that is what happened. The Vice President
came here to the Senate floor under the cover of night to overturn a
consumer bureau rule that would have guaranteed that hard-working
Americans get their day in court when cheated by a big bank. The Vice
President comes in and breaks a tie, and consumers lose, but Wall
Street wins. Wall Street is indebted to this Vice President.
Now the administration ignores the law and hands over the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau to a person who doesn't even think it
should exist. The man they want running this consumer watchdog bureau
has said that the agency ``is a sick, sad joke.'' He voted to repeal
it.
I guess that is why he thinks he could do this job part time. The
President sent a member of his Cabinet who already has a full-time job
at the Office of Management and Budget to also run the consumer bureau
at the same time. I have never heard of anything quite like that, but
he is a reliable Wall Street crony who will do the bidding for Wall
Street and do everything he can if he gets the chance to undercut it.
When he says it is a sick, sad joke, it is no joke to the people who
have been cheated by Wall Street. It is no joke to the tens of
thousands of servicemembers who rely on the consumer bureau to fight
for them against bankruptcy. Think about that. Think about these banks
that prey on servicemembers--19, 20, 25-year-old men and women who are
serving their country. Some of them are overseas. Their spouses are
raising the kids, struggling every day on a servicemember's pay. The
banks have abused them. Who stood up for them? It wasn't Members of
Congress who stood up for them; it was the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. That is why they are there. It was no joke to the 29
million American consumers who have money in their pockets now because
the consumer bureau stood by them. It is no joke that in his first act
today, Mulvaney says he wants to put an end to payments to working
families who have been cheated by banks and financial institutions.
We need this agency to be able to continue its work fighting back
against Wall Street abuses and fighting for the American people.
Americans need a full-time cop on the beat with a proven track record
of fighting for them, not a part-time Director who has another job in
the President's Cabinet--who ever heard of such a thing?--especially
since that part-time Director had a reputation when he was in Congress
down the hall. Now that he is in the President's Cabinet, he has a
record of working for Wall Street.
In 2016, Candidate Trump said: ``[T]his election is a choice between
taking our government back from the special interests or surrendering
our last scrap of independence to their total and complete control.''
If President Trump wants to keep that promise, he should take his own
advice. He should allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to
carry out its mission to protect American consumers, free of Wall
Street special interests. You don't drain the swamp by putting a toady
from Wall Street into the consumer bureau to do the bidding of Wall
Street. It is pretty darn simple.
The President has a chance to stand beside the American people. He
told us last year that he would drain the swamp, stand up to special
interest groups, and that he would punish Wall Street if Wall Street
overreached. He should keep that promise. He should allow the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau to continue doing its work.
Anyone who stands on the side of hard-working Americans should make
it clear that they support Deputy Director English as the Acting
Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is about whose
side you are on. Are you on the side of Wall Street? Are you on the
side of the special interests writing tax-cuts-for-the-rich bills in
the majority leader's office? Are you for Main Street? Are you for
hard-working Americans who show up to work every day and just want an
even break and a chance in this country?
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is,
Will the Senate advise and consent to the Friedrich nomination?
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 3, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 281 Ex.]
YEAS--97
Alexander
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Duckworth
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Harris
Hassan
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
Kennedy
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Lee
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Strange
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
Young
NAYS--3
Gillibrand
Sanders
Warren
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Strange). Under the previous order, the
motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
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