[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 181 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S7035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF MICHELLE BOWMAN

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this week this body began rubberstamping 
yet another Trump nominee who will help unravel Wall Street reform and 
who will give big banks free rein again. This White House increasingly 
looks like a retreat for Wall Street executives.
  Michelle Bowman is about to become a member of the Board of Governors 
of the Federal Reserve. We should be aware that the only reason this 
slot is open is because of the obstruction of President Obama's Federal 
Reserve nominees in the last Congress. President Trump will have 
already nominated six of the seven Board slots. There are other 
nominees we could be voting on who would enjoy more broad bipartisan 
support and have a direct impact on saving and creating American jobs--
people such as the four bipartisan nominees to the Export-Import Bank, 
blocked by two or three Members of the Senate doing the bidding of the 
White House, costing us thousands.
  This is coming from business interests, the Chamber of Commerce, the 
National Association of Manufacturers, the Wall Street Journal, and 
places like that. This is costing us thousands of good-paying 
manufacturing jobs because of an ideological hangup on this side, 
because of complicity in the majority leader's office, and because 
somebody at the White House has a problem with the Export-Import Bank. 
Nobody can understand what it is.
  These nominees have strong bipartisan support. Instead of voting on 
that to create jobs immediately--immediately in my State, we are voting 
on someone who will make it easier for the Fed to roll back and water 
down more consumer protections.
  Ms. Bowman failed during a hearing to provide the committee any 
insight on her views on monetary policy, regulation, and financial 
instability--in other words, all of the issues that affect our economy 
that she will make decisions on.
  We have seen what is happening at the Fed. We have heard their plans 
for rolling back rule after rule after rule. Vice Chair Quarles came to 
our committee. Last week he said the Fed will weaken stress tests and 
living wills for the largest banks.
  We see what is happening in other ways. The Fed put out its proposal 
to implement the bank giveaway bill enacted earlier this year. It rolls 
back rules on banks with over $250 billion in assets. But do you know 
what else it does? Get this. The Fed announced plans to weaken rules 
for foreign megabanks. These are banks such as Santander, Deutsche 
Bank, and UBS. These are foreign banks. Think about ``Make America 
great again.'' These are foreign banks, big foreign banks--foreign 
banks that are huge into the hundreds of billions of dollars in assets 
internationally and a good size in this country. They have broken 
Federal law time and time and time again.
  What does the White House do? What does the majority leader do? He 
says it is OK to give these foreign banks a break, and then we have to 
be preached to about making America great? How does that make any sense 
that the President of the United States sends these nominees up here 
who come out of this swamp at the White House? These nominees, pure and 
simple, look like a retreat of Wall Street executives at the White 
House--excuse me, a retreat of foreign bank CEOs at the White House. 
They come up here, and we weaken the rules that protect Americans.
  We side with foreign banks that have broken the law instead of siding 
with American consumers. Something is very, very wrong on that.
  I worry for our country. I worry for our economy. I know what 
happened. There may be collective amnesia on the Senate Banking 
Committee, but I remember what happened. The ZIP Code my wife and I 
live in had more foreclosures in 2007 than any ZIP Code in the United 
States of America.
  I see the residue from those foreclosures. I know people lost their 
homes. I know people lost their savings. I know people lost their jobs. 
I see what those homes look like. I know they have high levels of lead-
based paint. Does anybody at the Fed care about that? No, they want 
more deregulation. They want to help the foreign banks at the expense 
of people in my neighborhood. It is bad economics. It is morally 
outrageous.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. McCONNELL. 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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