[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 130 (Wednesday, August 1, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5553-S5554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PENSIONS AND THE CFPB

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I will start by thanking Senator Hatch. He 
and I are cochairs of the Pensions Committee. We had a commitment, and 
we had a good meeting in his office last week. We had a good discussion 
and hearing in our joint committee; we have four Republicans and four 
Democrats from each House solving what looks to some to be an 
intractable pension problem.
  But if you are one of 16,000 Ohio Teamsters, mine workers, iron 
workers, carpenters, bakers, and others, it is your life because you 
put--what this town doesn't always understand on collective bargaining 
is you give up money today at the bargaining table so you will have a 
pension later in life; you will have economic security.
  In part because of Wall Street shenanigans and other things, these 
pensions are in jeopardy. They could face up to 60 percent in pension 
cuts. We also know that a whole lot of businesses, at least 210 in my 
State alone, could face layoffs or, worse, bankruptcy. Many of them are 
family-owned transportation and manufacturing and construction 
companies. They could face very, very dire economic times if Congress 
doesn't fix that, let alone what is going to happen to the Pension 
Benefit Guaranty Corporation. I thank Senator Hatch for that.

[[Page S5554]]

  Mr. President, I am a little curious, though, when I hear him and 
others talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as if it is 
this awful, out-of-control Federal agency. What bothers my colleagues 
about the CFPB is that it is the only agency in government that is 
willing to stand up against the Wall Street interests. We see the 
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and we know how close he is 
to Wall Street--the Comptroller. We see the FDIC and we see the Federal 
Reserve and we see these nominees who come out of a White House that 
looks like it is a retreat for Wall Street executives, and they are on 
one side protecting Wall Street and doing Wall Street's bidding.
  We have one agency, just one agency, which my conservative, pro-Wall 
Street, pro-corporate colleagues complain about every day, every week, 
every month--an agency that has saved 29 million American consumers $12 
million. How do you think--and they want to rein in that agency, saying 
the agency just has too much power over people's lives. It is actually 
protecting--my friend, the Senator from Massachusetts, who is also in 
the hall, talks about their being a cop on the beat. They are 
protecting consumers while Wall Street is doing whatever Wall Street 
does to them. I will just leave it at that.

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