[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
  ROLLING BACK FINANCIAL REGULATIONS WILL PUT OUR COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC 
                            SECURITY AT RISK

  (Ms. GABBARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, rolling back financial regulations that are 
in place to protect the American people will put them and our country's 
economic security at risk. However, the Financial CHOICE Act that is 
being considered by Congress today does just that: it erodes 
protections against dishonest big bank practices that rob people of 
their hard-earned salaries.
  This bill repeals the Volcker rule. It dismantles the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau, strips regulations in place to protect the 
American people's savings, and actually lets the big banks maintain 
even less capital that they need to absorb catastrophic losses, making 
it so that they are relying once again on the American taxpayer to bail 
them out.
  We don't need to remind the families who have suffered so much about 
the pain caused by the Great Recession. In my own home State of Hawaii, 
from 2008 to 2010, our unemployment rate more than doubled, and 11 
million people in America lost their homes. The big banks of 2008 are 
even bigger and more powerful today.
  I urge my colleagues to reject this dangerous bill and, instead, pass 
H.R. 790, the Return to Prudent Banking Act, which would reinstate a 
21st century Glass-Steagall Act.

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