[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 29, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H1264-H1267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS SHOULD WORK 
 PROACTIVELY WITH CUSTOMERS AFFECTED BY SHUTDOWN OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 77) expressing the sense of Congress that financial 
institutions and other companies should work proactively with their 
customers affected by the shutdown of the Federal Government who may be 
facing short-term financial hardship and long-term damage to their 
creditworthiness through no fault of their own, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                               H. Res. 77

       Resolved, That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) financial institutions and other entities, such as 
     landlords, consumer reporting agencies and companies engaged 
     in the production of consumer scores, should help consumers 
     affected by any shutdown of the Federal Government, including 
     the shutdown that began on December 22, 2018;
       (2) even with the recent conclusion of the shutdown, the 
     period of recovery has just begun and the negative impact the 
     shutdown is having on millions of consumers and the U.S. 
     economy is significant; for example, analysis from S&P Global 
     Ratings estimates that the U.S. economy has already lost more 
     than $6 billion as of January 25, 2019, and if the shutdown 
     were to resume in a few weeks, the analysis suggests there 
     would be a further reduction of real Gross Domestic Product 
     by $1.2 billion each week the government is shutdown;
       (3) financial institutions and other companies, such as 
     consumer reporting agencies and companies engaged in the 
     production of consumer scores, should provide opportunities 
     for consumers affected by any shutdown--including Federal 
     employees, government contractors, small businesses, and 
     other individuals--who are or will be facing financial 
     distress to easily contact and alert them of their situation 
     immediately;
       (4) affected consumers may face financial hardship and 
     emotional distress in making timely payments on their debts, 
     such as mortgages, student loans, car loans, credit cards, 
     and other debt, as well as paying for rent, food, 
     transportation, school and other basic necessities, due to 
     the temporary delay or permanent loss of their income;
       (5) to provide quick relief to their affected customers or 
     tenants, financial institutions and other entities, such as 
     landlords, respectively, should for the duration of any 
     shutdown, as well as for a reasonable period of time 
     following a shutdown, consider waiving or reducing penalty, 
     late payment, and similar fees; ceasing evictions and 
     foreclosures; and providing forbearance;
       (6) consumers affected by the shutdown, whose income are 
     directly or indirectly dependent on the full operation of the 
     Federal Government, may be experiencing financial and 
     emotional stress through no fault of

[[Page H1265]]

     their own and their creditworthiness should not be impaired 
     because of the shutdown;
       (7) financial institutions and other companies, such as 
     consumer reporting agencies and companies engaged in the 
     production of consumer scores, should take steps to prevent 
     adverse information being reported and utilized in any manner 
     that harms affected consumers, including by preventing 
     modified credit arrangements intended to help consumers 
     fulfill their financial obligations from being reported to, 
     and coded by, consumer reporting agencies on a person's 
     credit report in a manner that hurts the creditworthiness of 
     the affected consumers;
       (8) new products, services, or prudent workout arrangements 
     designed to help affected consumers that are consistent with 
     safe and sound lending practices are generally in the long-
     term best interest of the financial institution, the 
     consumer, and the economy;
       (9) financial institutions should work proactively to 
     identify their customers who have been affected by any 
     shutdown and adopt flexible, prudent arrangements to help 
     such customers meet their debt and other obligations; and
       (10) prudent efforts to adopt flexible workout arrangements 
     for affected consumers should not be subject to examiner 
     criticism or negative examinations.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Waters) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
McHenry) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.


                             General Leave

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, as 
amended. President Trump's historic 35-day shutdown of the Federal 
Government has had a deeply harmful impact on millions of Americans and 
the U.S. economy.
  While this shutdown recently came to an end, we must not forget the 
recovery has just begun for a wide range of affected consumers, 
including Federal employees, contractors, small businesses, and other 
individuals.
  Many of those people will not receive back pay. Many of them have 
various financial obligations, like a mortgage, or a student loan 
payment that they may have missed. However, they did not cause the 
shutdown and should not suffer any negative consequences from it.
  Financial institutions and other entities, like landlords and 
consumer reporting agencies, can play a key role in helping these 
innocent people. Given the financial hardship and emotional distress 
these consumers face, through no fault of their own, I introduced H. 
Res. 77 to send a strong message to the financial industry that they 
should do what they can to help these innocent consumers.
  Specifically, the resolution expresses the sense of Congress that 
financial institutions and other entities should work proactively to 
help all consumers affected by the shutdown. This includes waiving 
fees, ceasing evictions and foreclosures, and otherwise providing 
forbearance for any affected consumer, as well as taking steps to 
ensure their creditworthiness is not impaired because of the shutdown.
  Financial regulators agree that it is appropriate for financial 
institutions to offer prudent accommodations to help their affected 
customers. On January 10, I wrote to the regulators to encourage them 
to provide public guidance to financial institutions to underscore they 
could affirmatively make prudent workout arrangements consistent with 
safety and soundness without fear of being subject to examiner 
criticisms. I am glad that they made such a statement the very next 
day.
  On January 18, I wrote a letter to various financial services trade 
organizations, as well as the three largest credit reporting agencies, 
to encourage their institutions and member companies to take all 
prudent and appropriate actions, including those outlined in the 
regulators interagency statement, to help any consumer who may be 
affected by the shutdown.
  While I appreciate that many financial institutions have already 
announced various accommodations for affected consumers, I believe it 
is important that there be a robust effort by all financial 
institutions, consumer reporting agencies, and others to do what they 
can to help in the weeks and months to come which H. Res. 77 seeks to 
encourage.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the 800,000 Federal 
employees impacted by the partial government shutdown and express my 
sincere agreement that banks and Federal regulators should do the 
compassionate and the sensible thing, to support customers in need of 
assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, whether it was a missed credit card payment or an 
unexpected medical expense, many furloughed Federal employees have 
faced economic hardships over the last 35 days, through no fault of 
their own. A string of dead-end and dead-on-arrival bills and 
nonstarter negotiations thrust hardworking Federal employees into the 
middle of a political fight, all over commonsense border security 
measures that I support, and that many Democrats have supported 
previously.
  Our only course of action at that time and now is to try and provide 
some relief to those who are in need, and most importantly, find a 
solution to ensure that the government doesn't shut down again on 
February 15. But those are larger political issues, and we are trying 
to be of substance as to what we can do to be of assistance to those 
who were affected by the government shutdown within our committee of 
jurisdiction, the Financial Services Committee.
  I appreciate Chairwoman Waters' efforts to provide support for 
hardworking Federal employees by introducing this resolution and 
encouraging banks to assist their customers in need.
  Thankfully, many financial institutions are already doing exactly 
what is suggested in this resolution, and that, as Chairwoman Waters 
said in her statement, is at the urging of Members of Congress, but 
also their understanding of the needs in their communities, like 
waiving late fees for furloughed employees, or the other over 100 banks 
that took it upon themselves for loan modifications and payment 
deadline extension, payroll advances, low-rate and zero-rate loans, as 
well as other accommodations, and those are wonderful things, positive 
things.
  Unfortunately, we now find ourselves in a situation where the 
financial regulatory regime has left banks trying their best under a 
cloud of uncertainty on how regulators will react to their efforts 
during the government shutdown.
  While I agree with my colleague across the aisle that we should 
encourage banks to work more proactively with customers affected in the 
shutdown, we must also encourage our financial regulators to provide 
clarity to our financial institutions that they are permitted to 
provide that type of relief.

  I have no doubt this issue will be a part of a larger conversation I 
hope that we can have on the Financial Services Committee about what 
regulators are doing to help individual taxpayers and also what they 
are doing that hurts the American people as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I think this is a good bill that I encourage my 
colleagues to support.
  Mr. HARRIS. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
  Mr. McHENRY. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
  Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, my reading of the bill is not furloughed 
employees. It is anyone affected. It has a very broad definition. 
Without putting any guardrails on it, one could argue that every 
American was probably affected in some way. Is that true? Is my reading 
of the bill that this extends way beyond furloughed employees? It 
affects any consumer affected. Is that correct?
  Mr. McHENRY. Reclaiming my time, I did not write the legislation. The 
intention here is the encouragement of Federal regulators to take a new 
look. I think that is the broad understanding of what this resolution 
gets to. I reserve the balance of my time.

[[Page H1266]]

  


                              {time}  1400

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Velazquez), who is a senior member of the Financial 
Services Committee and chairwoman of the Small Business Committee.
  Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman, Maxine Waters, 
and the ranking member, Mr. McHenry, for this important resolution.
  Last week, Democrats stood united and ended the longest government 
shutdown in history. We should be clear: This shutdown was caused 
solely by President Trump's personal obsession with the border wall.
  Roughly 800,000 Federal workers were either furloughed or forced to 
work without pay. More than 1 million contractors were forced to miss 
multiple paychecks.
  Now, Donald Trump may not relate to this, but for these workers, this 
means bills piling up. It means choosing between putting gasoline in 
your car or groceries in your refrigerator.
  Throughout the shutdown, my office was in contact with several 
financial institutions and companies that were offering forbearance 
options, waiving late fees, and providing short-term, no-interest loans 
for affected workers. That is admirable, and I thank them.
  However, the media also reported on numerous workers who were forced 
to take out personal loans and cash advances on credit cards, or who 
even turned to predatory payday loans to make ends meet.
  For example, NBC News recently reported on one company offering 
personal installment loans that had seen an uptick in customers looking 
to use their products. It is perhaps no coincidence that this uptick 
coincided with a nearly 19 percent rise in the company's stock since 
the shutdown began.
  This is unconscionable. Financial institutions and companies should 
not be preying on Federal employees or contractors who went nearly a 
month without pay. Instead, they should be working with those affected 
to get them back on track and rebuild their lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Chair Waters for offering this important 
resolution to further that goal, and I urge all my colleagues to vote 
``yes.''
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney).
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Actually, Mr. Speaker, I have a point of 
clarification for the chairman.
  Is this bill affecting all furloughed Federal workers, anyone 
furloughed, or anyone affected by the furlough in any way? Any 
consumer, any American that is affected?
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is intended not only to help 
Federal employees as such, but contractors, small businesses, and 
others that are connected to government in ways that you may not be 
able to absolutely identify here. You may have folks who are 
consultants who are not considered contractors. You may have others who 
will be affected by this who maybe had a contract with the Federal 
Government that is now in litigation that has to be dealt with.
  That is what we are intending to do, not just have a blanket, 
blanket, blanket, but some connection to the Federal Government.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, in West Virginia's Second 
District, we have a lot of Federal workers and contractors who are 
affected.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the 
gentleman from West Virginia.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for 
clarifying that.
  Of course, there are a lot of folks in my district who are affected 
by the shutdown and also affected indirectly because they are 
contractors and such. I have had them approach me over the last few 
weeks, wondering if their backlogged projects were going to get funded. 
It is important to clarify that.
  Of course, we should backpay people, and the good, hardworking 
Americans who make this country go around need to get paid.
  I understand a little bit of an obsession on the other side against a 
border wall that was mentioned by the previous speaker, when this is 
really about how government should function and appropriate funds in 
the appropriate way, and the power of the purse. Frankly, getting bills 
through the House and the Senate has become quite a problem, 
particularly with the other Chamber, which doesn't seem to pass 
anything and then wants us to do just whatever the Senate does.
  We have a lot of dysfunction, particularly on the other side, and 
that is what has cost the workers, not this wall. The wall is something 
the President said he would do. It is not the wall; it is the 
dysfunction of passing bills around here that has caused these 
problems.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for the extra minute.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, let me say this: I know that we all want to 
help all of those who have been affected by the shutdown, and so I hope 
I was able to clarify that, so that people can help the constituents in 
their districts even in ways they may not have understood.
  Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Lawson).
  Mr. LAWSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 77. 
This resolution expresses the sense that financial institutions should 
do everything within their power to ensure that their customers who 
were impacted by the Trump shutdown receive the resources they need to 
get back on track.
  Nearly 800,000 Federal workers across this Nation were impacted by 
the shutdown, 13,000 of which are in my district. Throughout my 
district in Florida, from Quincy, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and even 
in the rural areas, constituents expressed to me the challenges of not 
receiving their paychecks. This meant not paying their mortgage or 
rent, not paying for childcare, hardships purchasing gas and groceries, 
or having to miss a car note. Some of these individuals even relied on 
their banks for loans.

  These are hardworking Americans who did not ask for the shutdown, 
should not have had to suffer as a pawn in the shutdown, or did not 
deserve to be furloughed because of a shutdown. That is unacceptable.
  Because of the shutdown, these employees made difficult financial 
decisions. That is why it is necessary for our financial institutions 
to step up and provide relief to those impacted. That means extending 
payment deadlines, reducing the interest rate on short-term loans, and 
providing financial and customer education that will help Federal 
employees prepare for the potential of other financial hardships.
  Mr. Speaker, I applaud Congresswoman Waters for introducing this 
resolution and for standing up for Federal workers, and I ask that all 
of my colleagues in this House vote in favor.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to 
close.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this House resolution. I 
think this resolution truly expresses the sense of Congress that we 
should provide relief that, voluntarily, over 100 financial 
institutions have already committed to do publicly over the course of 
the shutdown. But I think it shows that we are a compassionate group of 
folks here in the House of Representatives and that we want to be 
sensible in every way possible, even in the midst of these major 
political fights that do occur from time to time, perhaps, here on this 
House floor.
  Those disagreements notwithstanding, what we want to do is work in a 
proactive way and in a bipartisan way to convey to the public that 
there are sensible things that we are about, and that Republicans and 
Democrats still can get things done here on the House floor, here doing 
the people's business and the people's work.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support Chairwoman Waters' 
resolution here today, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to 
close.
  Mr. Speaker, this shutdown has inflicted tremendous harm on consumers 
and the U.S. economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the 
initial cost for the recent shutdown is more than $11 billion and 
wrote: ``Among those who experienced the

[[Page H1267]]

largest and most direct negative effects are Federal workers who faced 
delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. 
Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost 
income. . . . And people who lost income and consequently borrowed 
money during the shutdown will see an increase in expenses as they pay 
interest on that debt.''
  I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that it 
would be unfair if these innocent consumers were to suffer any negative 
consequences from the shutdown and that financial institutions and 
others should do what they can to help.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to try and give some comfort to those who 
think that maybe there are individuals who are not federally connected 
who would be getting help with this kind of approach, but that is 
absolutely not true. I could not list every possible way, but I am 
reminded that my husband was an Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the 
Bahamas. I am reminded of the families who were there. I am reminded of 
the children whose education we paid for while they were in that 
country, and the education of other families of ambassadors and 
diplomats for whom the Federal Government pays. We would not want to 
not reimburse for the education of our children in foreign countries, 
et cetera. So there are many ways that people who are connected to the 
Federal Government are impacted by this.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to Mr. McHenry: Thank you so very 
much for your support.
  Again, this is a fine example of how both sides of the aisle can 
agree on a commonsense resolution that will help all those who have 
been impacted by this shutdown.
  I am very pleased to have the support of Mr. McHenry. We have been 
trying desperately in the work that we do, as we began this session of 
Congress, to show that you can work cooperatively with both sides of 
the aisle working together on a bill, resolution, legislation, et 
cetera, that really does support and help our families and all the 
people in the country who are looking to us for support and leadership.
  Again, I thank Mr. McHenry, and I thank all the Members on the 
opposite side of the aisle who get this and who understand it and whose 
contractors and others are on them saying: What are you going to do? 
What are you going to do?
  This is our effort, and I appreciate their support.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) that the House suspend the 
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 77, as amended
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is 
laid on the table.
  Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I object.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Objection is heard.

                          ____________________