[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  (Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Financial 
Services Committee's work to overhaul our financial system. Across the 
Nation, including my home State of Rhode Island, predatory lending and 
unregulated mortgage brokers led to unsustainable home loans and a 
drain on our economy. Now, with unemployment at 13 percent, my 
constituents, like many across the country, have had no other choice 
but to turn to credit cards to support their families and small 
businesses. Now what's happening is these struggling Rhode Islanders 
are subjected to the deceptive practices of credit card companies 
greedily generating more profit before new regulations go into effect. 
We've all seen it. These practices include rising minimum payment 
amounts and interest rates, decreasing limits and closing accounts 
without proper notification. For these reasons and many more, consumer 
protection must be the cornerstone of financial reform. Further, we 
must restore accountability and transparency of financial institutions 
and eliminate risks that contributed to the financial collapse.
  I look forward to voting on legislation which will address these past 
failures, strengthen regulation and oversight and put our country back 
on a path to economic stability.

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