Bill Foster

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the National Science Bowl team of Naperville North High School and to commend them on reaching the national finals of the high school academic competition. Since 1991, the Office of Science's National Science Bowl has hosted some of the nation's most intelligent students for one of the largest and most prestigious academic competitions. Every year, teams from 64 schools around the country compete to demonstrate their understanding of the great issues in mathematics and science. I want to congratulate the Naperville North High School team on reaching the national finals and on placing first in SLAC Division Team Challenge. The talent and knowledge present in these students are truly impressive, and as Congress' resident PhD-trained physicist, I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Union of Concerned Scientists' 50th anniversary. For five decades, the Union of Concerned Scientists has been using the latest technological and scientific expertise to address the world's most pressing issues. Its team of nearly 250 experts in science, policy, and communications continues to introduce new and innovative solutions to the greatest questions of our time. Among their many projects and initiatives, I have been particularly impressed with their work to address the looming threats posed by climate change and to contain the existential threat of nuclear war. I would like to thank the Union of Concerned Scientists for its commitment to our collective future and for its numerous projects that will help ensure a better world for our children.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the resolution (H. Res. 327) encouraging greater public-private sector collaboration to promote financial literacy for students and young adults, as amended.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 327, a bipartisan resolution we introduced in April in honor of Financial Literacy Month. I would like to start by thanking my friend Congressman French Hill from Arkansas, who should truly be considered as an original cosponsor of this resolution for working on this legislation with me. The aim of this resolution is simple but important. It encourages collaboration between the public and private sector to promote financial literacy for students. It emphasizes the importance of financial literacy for consumers of all ages, and it supports efforts of Federal agencies to expand financial education resources. This year alone, approximately 15.1 million students will be in grades 9 through 12 and almost 20 million students will be enrolled in colleges and universities. That is a lot of young people who will soon be entering a complex financial marketplace where they will have to quickly make important financial decisions. These include decisions about paying for college, credit cards, financing a car or a home purchase, preparing for unexpected emergencies, and saving for retirement. However, without an understanding of basic financial concepts, these young people will not be well equipped to make these decisions. At a time when student loan balances stand at $1.5 trillion and a majority of private workers have access to defined contribution plans and not traditional pension benefits, it is even more important for young people and workers to be financially literate. Part of the problem is that too few schools incorporate financial education into their curriculum. According to the Council for Economic Education, only a third of States require high school students to take a course in personal finance. In those States, most schools teach the subject as one portion of another course of study--such as math, economics, or social studies--while only five States require a semester-long, standalone personal finance course. Studies show that financial illiteracy carries significant cost. Consumers who fail to understand the concept of compound interest spend more on transaction fees, run up bigger debts, and incur higher interest rates on loans. We also need to work on making financial literacy tools available for everyone. Unfortunately, levels of financial literacy are lower among the less educated minorities and women. Just 19 percent of high school graduates possess basic financial knowledge and skills. Perhaps even more troubling, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association, 21 percent of respondents, including 38 percent of those with income below $25,000, reported that winning the lottery was ``the most practical strategy for accumulating several hundred thousand dollars for their own retirement.'' This is a tragedy in the making, and we can do better. While Americans are not expected to manage their own legal cases or medical conditions, they are expected to manage their own finances. We teach our children to wear seat belts. We teach them to say no to drugs. We should also be teaching them the financial literacy skills that they will need to successfully navigate the financial marketplace. We want to give young people and all consumers the tools they need to survive. One of the ways in which we can do that is by having Federal agencies partner with schools, local and State governments, workplaces, community organizations, nonprofits, and financial service providers. Whether it is giving students immersive opportunities to see how money and banking work in the real world or helping train and equip teachers with the curriculum and materials they need to succeed in the classroom, Federal agencies should be bold and innovative in their approaches and leverage the ways in which technology can be used to further these laudable goals. We cannot afford to have future generations of Americans grow up without learning these fundamental skills. For that reason, I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. David Scott).

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I would like to again thank my colleague, Congressman Hill, for his assistance in support of this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this important resolution to show Congress' commitment to ensuring our Nation's students have the essential financial literacy skills they need to thrive and excel in today's economy. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1876) to create an interdivisional taskforce at the Securities and Exchange Commission for senior investors.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam 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.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I am proud to support H.R. 1876, the Senior Security Act of 2019, a bipartisan bill introduced by Congressman Gottheimer and Congressman Hollingsworth. The financial exploitations of senior citizens is a major problem today, and with the aging of the baby boomer generation, it will only get worse in the coming years. By 2030, one in five persons in the U.S. is projected to be 65 or older. That would equal approximately 75 million people who are senior citizens. It is also estimated that nearly one in five Americans over the age of 65 have been a victim of financial exploitation. This can take many forms, including being steered towards inappropriate investment, paying unreasonably high fees for financial services, or outright fraud. Senior citizens are often targeted because they are more likely to suffer from problems of memory and judgment, making them vulnerable to fraud. Exacerbating the issue is that the overwhelming majority of incidents of elder financial exploitation go unreported to authorities. The Senior Security Act would help combat elder financial abuse by creating a task force in the SEC to identify the challenges that senior investors encounter and areas in which senior investors would benefit from changes to SEC regulations. The bill also requires that the GAO conduct a study on the financial exploitation of senior citizens. The GAO study would give us an important comprehensive look at this issue, including a breakdown of the economic costs of financial exploitation of senior citizens, answers to how often this happens, why such abuses often go unreported, and factors that contribute to an increased risk of exploitation. Americans work hard over their lifetime in order to save for retirement and be financially safe and secure when they get older. Unscrupulous people and companies would take advantage of these senior citizens and rob them of their hard-earned money. Those people and companies should not be able to get away with such egregious behavior. This bill would allow us to more effectively combat this growing problem. For that reason, I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hollingsworth) for bringing this bipartisan initiative forward. I urge all Members to vote ``yes.'' Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer), the coauthor of this legislation.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate, again, Mr. Gottheimer and Mr. Hollingsworth for having brought this bill to the floor. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this important piece of legislation to comprehensively examine and strengthen the protections against financial exploitation of our senior citizens. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 328) supporting the protection of elders through financial literacy.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam 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.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I am proud to support H. Res. 328, a resolution introduced by Congressman Casten of Illinois and Congressman Rose of Tennessee. This bipartisan resolution acknowledges an important component of financial literacy, and it is raising awareness of threats to personal finances, especially for vulnerable targeted populations such as older adults. It also encourages continued public-private partnerships and information sharing to effectively prevent, detect, report, and investigate elder financial exploitation. As we have heard, the baby boomer generation is getting older; 10,000 of them are turning 65 each day. According to the National Center on Aging, up to 5 million older Americans are abused every year, and the annual loss by victims of financial abuse is estimated to be at least $36.5 billion. That is why we need to be proactive about combating this serious problem on multiple fronts. We should work to arm our senior citizens with the knowledge they need to effectively detect and prevent financial exploitation by would- be criminals. Understanding the red flags and warning signs to look for is important first step. In addition, we should continue to support efforts by FinCEN and other regulatory and law enforcement agencies to ensure that information at the disposal of these agencies is used to better deter and respond to incidents of elder financial exploitation. Efforts like H. Res. 328, together with the Senior Security Act of 2019 and the Senior Safe Act of 2018, show Congress' commitment to supporting our Nation's senior citizens on a bipartisan basis. It also shows our commitment to encouraging collaboration, public-private partnerships, and information sharing in order to effectively combat financial exploitation of senior citizens. Madam Speaker, for these reasons, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Casten) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. John W. Rose) for bringing this bipartisan initiative forward, and I urge all Members to vote ``yes.'' Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Casten), the co-author of this legislation.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, I want to again congratulate Mr. Casten and Mr. Rose for having brought this resolution to the floor. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this important resolution to empower senior citizens and promote public-private partnerships in order to strengthen our enforcement against crimes of financial exploitation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Waters for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking the chairwoman for bringing up this bipartisan bill today and for maintaining bipartisan momentum in the areas where bipartisan agreement is achievable. Chairwoman Waters and her staff were instrumental in passing this bill in the last Congress and including it in JOBS 3.0. I would also like to thank my friend, Congressman Hill, for working on the Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act, the CLAW Act, with me. I am proud to support this bill, which passed with very strong bipartisan support in the last Congress, a 55-0 vote in the Financial Services Committee, a 379-4 vote on the House floor. This bill creates a commonsense safe harbor from Bank Secrecy Act liability for a bank that keeps an account open at the request of law enforcement. For background, law enforcement agencies sometimes send what are called keep open letters to financial institutions so that they can obtain critical evidence in investigations by following the money. While following these law enforcement requests is optional, agreeing to them does, in fact, create a technical violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. This complicates the decision for a financial institution that should be simple. This could, in fact, undermine our efforts to prevent illicit finance or money laundering. This bill will enhance the ability of the law enforcement community to track funds in a criminal investigation, leading to better evidence and, hopefully, conviction of criminals higher up in the hierarchy. To be clear, nothing in this bill takes away from financial regulators' safety and soundness powers, and financial institutions still have to file SARs when they have a keep open letter. In addition, this bill requires that the keep open letters have a definite duration but does not preclude law enforcement from sending subsequent letters to extend the period, should the investigation continue. This bill is a great example of how Democrats and Republicans can come together on a number of issues of common interest. In a world in which criminals and criminal organizations have access to increasingly sophisticated tools and technologies to carry out their criminal activities, we should help financial institutions in leveling the playing field to bring these criminals to justice. This bill follows other commonsense, bipartisan efforts that I have supported to modernize our Nation's ability to confront dangerous criminals and criminal organizations. I recently introduced with Congressman Kustoff the CONFRONT Act, which would require the Treasury Department to develop a national strategy to combat the financial crimes of transnational criminal organizations and individuals. I am hopeful that this bill can also be passed in the near future with similarly strong bipartisan support. This bill today is an important measure that allows financial institutions to effectively assist with combating crimes such as money laundering and illicit financing, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Officer Skyy Calice as the recipient of the City of Aurora's African American Heritage Advisory Board's 2019 African-American Leader of the Year award. Officer Calice with the Aurora Police Department has been a true star in our community. As a Community Oriented Policing Officer, she has used her perspective and experience to launch numerous initiatives to make a difference. She established the Girls Run the World mentoring program to help guide young ladies in our local high schools to reach their full potential. Programs like this have been crucial to so many of our community members and future leaders. I would like to thank Officer Calice for her honorable commitment to her community. I would also like to express my support for the City of Aurora's African American Advisory Board Annual Heritage Dinner. The commitment of dedicated public servants like Officer Calice is an inspiration to all of us.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, we rise today to honor the lives that we lost to gun violence in Aurora, Illinois, earlier this month. This is, unfortunately, not the first time that we have mourned the unnecessary loss of life from gun violence. Eleven years ago, when I first took office, I inherited a community in mourning: 17 students were injured and 5 were killed in the Cole Hall mass shooting at Northern Illinois University. So I spent my first weeks and months in office doing what I could to help my community recover. Now, 11 years later, on February 15, the call went out from Aurora, Illinois: Workplace shooting at Henry Pratt. Active gunman. Officers down. More than 200 police units from across the western suburbs of Chicago responded to contain the situation. They were running toward the sound of gunfire, as they do countless times each day in our country. Six officers were injured during that response, and, in the aftermath, we learned that we lost five members of our community: Josh Pinkard, the plant manager at Henry Pratt, who, when fatally shot, sent a final text message to his wife, Terra, to say ``I love you''; Trevor Wehner, on his first day at work at Pratt as an intern from Northern Illinois University; Clayton Parks, Trevor's supervisor and also a graduate of NIU; Vicente Juarez, a hardworking family man who lived with his wife, daughter, and grandchildren on a quiet street in Oswego; Russell Beyer, a mold operator and union committee chairman from Machinists Local 1202 and the father of two children. Now, as we have done so many times before in Congress, I will soon ask that we pause for a moment of silence; but this time, I would ask each of you to also think of the voting card that each of us carries on the House floor and the responsibility that you carry with that card, because this week we will finally be voting on legislation for effective and universal background checks for all gun sales. This is legislation supported by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and supported by 97 percent of the American people. So, our hearts go out to the family and friends of the victims left behind, and now I ask that we pause for a moment of silence.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, on February 8, 2019, I missed two recorded votes. Had I been present, on rollcall No. 74, I would have voted no, and on rollcall No. 75, I would have voted yes.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, I was not present for votes Wednesday, December 19, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted: Roll Call No. 436 Aye; Roll Call No. 437 Aye; Roll Call No. 438 Aye; Roll Call No. 439 Aye; Roll Call No. 440 Aye; Roll Call No. 441 Aye; Roll Call No. 442 Aye; Roll Call No. 443 Aye; Roll Call No. 444 Aye; and Roll Call No. 445 Aye.

Mr. FOSTER

Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Waters for yielding. I want to begin by recognizing the good work of the ranking member and the chairman and their staffs in compiling this capital formation package. I want to compliment the legislative skill shown by the ranking member and her staff in securing minority bills in this package, which I recognize involved a lot of give and take. We are a long ways from where this Chamber was a little over 13 months ago when we voted in a very partisan manner on the Financial CHOICE Act. I am proud to support this package which contains a number of priorities which I supported in committee and on the floor. I worked on two of these bills with my colleagues, Congressmen Hill and Hultgren. While I know that there are many others who contributed to this package, I want to thank in particular Katelynn Bradley, Katy Strohmaier, and Lisa Peto of the ranking member's staff for helping draft these amendments that led to unanimous support for these two bills in committee. First, the Options Markets Stability Act would direct the banking regulators to write rules to provide far more accurate circulations of counterparty credit risk for options and derivatives. Under the current exposure method used today, banks that centrally clear trades today on behalf of their clients must hold capital against the total notional value of any positions without regard for the way hedges offset risk. This bill directs the regulators to implement a framework that incentivizes central clearing of options and derivatives, which is a major part of our response in the Dodd-Frank bill that has provided financial stability for the last 8 years. The second bill is the Cooperate With Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act. This bill creates a safe harbor for financial institutions and money service businesses from the Bank Secrecy Act so long as they have a letter from law enforcement asking for a specific account to be kept open. Law enforcement agencies often send these letters so that they can follow the money and obtain crucial evidence in investigations. This bill will encourage bank cooperation with these letters which are otherwise optional because it eliminates a situation of technical noncompliance. Other provisions in this package will improve transparency in markets which drives investor demand from around the world.