[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 93 (Wednesday, June 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3265-S3266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, barely a day goes by that doesn't bring 
news of another consumer protection rollback and another handout to 
Wall Street, day after day in this body or downtown.
  This weekend, we heard that the Federal Reserve plans changes to the 
Volcker rule--the rule that stops big banks from taking big risks with 
Americans' money. The month before, the Federal Reserve Vice Chair, 
Randal Quarles, said the Fed wants to loosen rules on foreign 
megabanks. Those are the banks like Santander and Deutsche Bank. These 
are banks headquartered abroad, but they abuse the public trust in this 
country and have been fined in the past. The Federal Reserve Vice 
Chair--who once was in the Bush administration, and prediction after 
prediction missed the implosion of the economy in 2007 and 2008--wants 
to loosen the rules on foreign megabanks. I don't even understand the 
logic, let alone the sensibleness of it.
  Today, we learned that Mick Mulvaney is continuing his systematic 
dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by disbanding 
the Consumer Advisory Board. It is a board of 25 advocates for American 
consumers and industry experts. It is required by law to meet twice a 
year, but Mulvaney now says they won't hold any meetings--not today, 
not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, period--they were supposed 
to meet with Mulvaney to advocate for American consumers, but they are 
done with that, I guess--not ever, until Mulvaney replaces all the 
members with his handpicked cronies.
  Even though Federal law says: You have to meet with them--required by 
law to meet twice a year--Mulvaney said: I am not meeting with them 
until they quit and I get my handpicked friends of payday lenders, 
friends of Wall Street, friends of big banks, friends of financial 
service companies who think about politics and government and 
regulation the way I think. What is right about that?

  Apparently, Director Mulvaney, who, as we know, has two jobs--Office 
of Budget and Management and also head of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau--and that is peculiar, putting it mildly. He has two 
absolutely full-time jobs that he is supposed to do, apparently, 
although he has time to chat up payday lenders at golf resorts in the 
Bahamas, but he can't make time to meet with actual consumer experts, 
even though it is the law to do that twice a year. He doesn't like 
these consumer experts, so he is saying he is not going to do it.
  The Board is supposed to advise the Director of the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau on trends that they are seeing so the 
Bureau can stay ahead of scams and fraud. It is one more tool--or 
should be one more tool--to try to prevent corporations from scamming 
consumers before it happens.
  For a change, let's stop the corruption and stop the back-scratching 
and

[[Page S3266]]

stop the favors for Wall Street before they happen rather than 
taxpayers bailing out these companies after they scam the public and 
then the public is left penniless in far too many cases.
  It is also an opportunity for the Director to hear what kinds of 
consumer problems Americans are facing. Here is fundamentally the 
reason why. Pope Francis, soon after he assumed the papacy, admonished 
his parish priests to go out and smell like the flock. Go out and smell 
like the flock. In other words, go out among people and see what 
troubles them, see what their problems are, try to experience their 
lives as much as a well-paid public servant can, including a Senator, 
including a Congressman or Congresswoman, including a city council 
person, whoever. Go out and smell like the flock. So instead of 
Mulvaney going and hanging around payday lenders in Bahamas, maybe he 
ought to go out and smell like the flock. Maybe he ought to follow the 
words of Pope Francis and listen to the problems people have. One of 
the ways of doing that is listening to these 25 advocates for American 
consumers and industry experts. As I said, they are required to meet 
twice a year, and if he is not listening to them--he clearly isn't 
listening to people who can share some of these thoughts.
  Similarly, when Lincoln was President, his staff wanted him to stay 
in the White House and win the war and free the slaves and preserve the 
Union, and Lincoln said: No, I have to go out and get my public opinion 
baths. Well, Director Mulvaney could use some public opinion baths. He 
could use some going out and smelling like the flock. Maybe he then 
would understand consumers' problems. But he really doesn't seem to 
want to do that.
  Over and over again, he has used his position at the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau to do favors for corporate special 
interests rather than look out for the people he is supposed to serve. 
He canceled an investigation into the payday lending industry, which 
preys on consumers and traps them in a downward spiral of debt. We know 
how that happens. People don't genuinely get one payday loan. Their car 
breaks down, and they borrow $400 because they can't get to work. They 
will not be able to pay their rent if they can't get to work, so they 
borrow the $400 because they don't have $400 in their pocket. A quarter 
of Americans--more than that--don't have $400 of discretionary money in 
their pockets to pay for an emergency. They go to a payday lender. They 
can't pay them back right away, so they get another payday loan. They 
can't pay that back, and by the end, they end up paying $1,500. They 
never get out of that downward spiral. Does Director Mulvaney care? 
Apparently not. He is too busy hanging out with payday lending 
advocates and payday lenders themselves.
  If that weren't bad enough, this week he ordered the Bureau to team 
up with those same payday lenders. He joined a lawsuit to delay a rule 
protecting consumers from triple-digit interest rates. Do you know why 
I say triple digits? Again, that is what happens. Almost nobody gets 
one payday loan. They simply can't pay it back quickly enough, so they 
get a second and a third. You don't have to be very good in math. Even 
Senators can understand this. If you are getting three, four, five, six 
payday loans, you are into paying triple-digit interest rates. If you 
borrow $300, you end up paying back $500, $600, $700.
  He has gutted the Office of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
that was supposed to stop discrimination in lending. He has disbanded 
the team that protected student loan borrowers. Nobody who is even as 
conservative as anybody in this body might be, who is in the tank with 
Wall Street as much as anybody in this body might be--there are a whole 
lot of them in that category--nobody really believes that we created 
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to fleece consumers and to 
protect payday lenders, but that is what the new administrator seems to 
want. He has hired a bunch of political cronies. We know that. He has 
given them political salaries. We know that.

  When he testified to the Banking Committee, sitting behind him were 
very well-dressed political cronies pulling down very big salaries, 
comparable to his salary and in some cases higher than Senators' 
salaries. I am not complaining about that; I am just saying that these 
are well-paid people who are political cronies who simply aren't 
looking out for consumers. It never ends. That is just the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau.
  Step back and look at what is happening in Washington, and you see 
the same pattern--favors for Wall Street, favors for special interests, 
no matter what it costs American workers, no matter what it costs 
American families.
  The White House looks like an executive retreat. It looks like a 
retreat for Wall Street executives, except when it looks like a retreat 
for drug company executives, except when it looks like a retreat for 
big bank lobbyists, or except when it looks like a retreat for payday 
lenders and Big Pharma lobbyists. That is the White House.
  This place looks the same. The doors open wide around here for 
lobbyists from the big drug companies, for lobbyists from Wall Street, 
for lobbyists from the biggest insurance companies in the country--not 
so much for public interest. You can see that in this body.
  Mick Mulvaney even admitted to a room full of bankers--get this. This 
is illuminating. It is illustrative. It doesn't shock me because I have 
watched him, and I have watched many people who are just like him here. 
Mick Mulvaney even admitted to a room full of bankers that he decided 
whom he would meet with based on campaign contributions. I am not 
making this up. He was a Congressman before. These are his words:

       We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you're a 
     lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If 
     you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.

  Hear that again. This is Mick Mulvaney, who is now in charge of the 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And consumers aren't writing big 
checks to Members of Congress; it is the interest groups.
  He said:

       We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you're a 
     lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If 
     you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.

  Those are his words. What was particularly troubling about that was 
he was telling a room full of bankers that story, and he was saying: 
Come to me. Come to me. Give us money.
  Not him per se because he is not running for office now, but give 
Members of Congress money. Get involved. Make contributions. Come into 
their offices--don't give them the money in the office. That would be 
perhaps vulgar and illegal. But give these politicians money, and then 
they may do things for you.
  As the head of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he was basically 
inviting these bankers: Give more money. Give more money. Give more 
money. Imagine that. Imagine that. Talk about the White House looking 
like a retreat for payday lending executives and Wall Street 
executives.
  Now we are seeing how devastating those priorities are for American 
consumers. Think about the 3\1/2\ million victims of Wells Fargo's fake 
account scandal. Think about the servicemembers who had their cars 
repossessed while serving their country overseas. They come back from 
combat, they come back from service overseas, and their car has been 
repossessed. Why? Because the Bureau is not on the beat anymore to 
protect those servicemembers from those kinds of scandals. Think about 
the grandmother who ended up paying 300 percent on a $300 loan.
  While Mick Mulvaney is looking out for Wall Street, who is looking 
out for the servicemember? Who is looking out for the grandmother? Who 
is looking out for the Wells Fargo fake account scandal victims?
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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