[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     DODD/FRANK 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. TERRI A. SEWELL

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 21, 2015

  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in recognition of 
the five-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 
Consumer Protection Act. This critically important piece of legislation 
has strengthened oversight of the financial sector, given regulators 
the tools to end the era of ``too big to fail,'' and has eliminated 
loopholes that allowed risky and abusive practices to go unnoticed and 
unregulated.
  As we mark this five-year anniversary, we must recognize that the 
``Great Recession'' of 2008 did not occur naturally as a part of the 
regular financial cycle, but as a result of the lack of transparency 
and accountability in the financial sector.
  During the ``Great Recession'' the American economy lost over 4 
million jobs, 13 trillion dollars in household wealth and approximately 
5 million homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure.
  Consequently, Dodd-Frank implemented reforms to prevent the bad 
actors from continuing to commit the types of deceptive and harmful 
practices that led to these catastrophic results. Most notably, Dodd-
Frank created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which over the 
past five years has returned over $10.1 billion dollars to over 17 
million consumers that were subjected to unfair treatment.
  No legislation is perfect, and there is still room for minor tweaks 
to be made in order to ensure Dodd-Frank achieves its original goal of 
increased transparency, market efficiency and consumer protection. 
However, we must continue to defend against Republican attacks to 
completely dismantle this critically important legislation. The sad 
reality is that Republican majority has spent countless hours 
attempting to weaken the financial regulatory system, and to reverse 
many of the important reforms made by Dodd-Frank.
  We must continue to protect our recovering economy, promote stability 
in our financial markets, and ensure that regulators have the tools to 
protect the American people.