[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                PROTECT OUR TROOPS FROM INSTANT LENDERS

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, today's New York Times reports on instant 
payday lenders who set up shop outside the gates of our military bases 
and charge staggeringly high interest rates to our troops. The Times 
found 200 payday lenders surrounding the Norfolk and Hampton naval 
bases in Virginia, two dozen surrounding the Marine Corps base at Camp 
Pendleton, California, 36 located within 3 miles of Fort Lewis, in 
Washington State, and one is even located on the edge of a small 
parking lot near a base.
  One example is of a Navy petty officer and her husband who borrowed 
$500 with an annual interest rate of 390 percent. This couple racked up 
$4,000 in debt, and their house was foreclosed upon.
  In September, this body passed a bipartisan piece of legislation, 
which I sponsored, to protect our troops from high-cost contractual 
mutual funds and life insurance policies that they need not have 
gotten. Unfortunately, before we left, the Senate did not take up this 
legislation. I would hope that today's article would add an impetus 
that the House again, in the Committee on Financial Services, take up 
the legislation, pass it again, and move it over to the Senate so we 
can protect the men and women who have served our country so proudly.
  Mr. Speaker, it is our duty to provide them the type of services and 
stability they expect in return for the dangers they face and the 
financial burdens they willingly assume in order to serve.

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