Jeb Hensarling

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, can I inquire whether the gentlelady has any more speakers?

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to say that the CFPB is building a database containing full credit report data on 53 million borrowers who took out mortgages since 1998. The project manager said: ``It is easy to reverse-engineer and identify the people in our database.'' CFPB has a credit card database of at least 991 million credit cards and approximately 136 million Americans. The Bureau is collecting a database of credit reports on 8.6 million Americans. They continue to collect personalized data from Americans without their permission. It is unacceptable. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Ross).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am now happy to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt), the vice chairman of our Capital Markets and GSE Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am now pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire how much time is remaining on each side.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, we are now into the sixth year of the Obama administration, and probably the two most common comments I hear from my constituents are ``I just can't make ends meet in this economy'' and ``Washington has become arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch.'' At the apex of these sentiments, lies the newly minted Dodd-Frank government agency known as the CFPB. Although many have yet to hear of it, the CFPB is perhaps the single most powerful and least accountable Federal agency in all of Washington. First, let's speak of its power. Mr. Chairman, when it comes to our credit cards, our auto loans, our mortgages, the CFPB has unbridled discretionary power not only to make them less available and more expensive, but to absolutely take them away. What does an agency with this kind of power do? It imposes rule like the qualified mortgage rule, or QM for short. Mr. Chairman, what does QM do? According to Federal Reserve data, because of QM, roughly one- third of Black and Hispanic borrowers would not meet the requirements of a QM loan. CoreLogic, which analyzes mortgage data, has said: Only half of today's mortgage originations meet QM requirements. That is egregiously unfair to hardworking Americans. One of my small town community bankers in east Texas told me recently: Because of QM, I can't tell you the number of times we have had to tell our good low-to-moderate income customers that we can no longer loan them money to purchase a home to live in. Mr. Chairman, this is what an agency with too much discretionary power does. It can actually abuse consumers, taking away their homeownership opportunities. That is unfair. Let's look at what happens to an agency that is not held accountable. Today, the CFPB is spending $145 million to renovate a $150 million headquarters building they don't even own. The renovation rate is three times the average Washington, D.C., luxury class A renovation rate. Well, what does $145 million buy? Well, it is $461 per square foot in office renovations. Mr. Chairman, that is more per square foot than was spent to build the Trump World Tower. More than the Trump World Tower. At $461 per square foot, that was more money than it cost to build the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, which at the time, I am told, was the most expensive hotel ever built. Mr. Chairman, this is more money to renovate a building they don't own than Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the single tallest skyscraper in the world. Ironically enough, the architectural firm which designed the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the same world renowned architectural firm that the CFPB paid over $7 million to design their headquarter renovations. Now, according to public documents, Mr. Chairman, some of the Bureau's renovations include ``a reflective carnelian granite water table'' that will ``lure in the curious passerby.'' Also for $145 million of hard-earned taxpayer money, the Bureau is buying ``a shady tree bosque'' to facilitate ``chance interactions in a removed place of rest and contemplation.'' I mean, I can't make this up, Mr. Chairman. This is how hard-earned money is being squandered. Here it is, the architectural drawings which have been filed publicly. I have to tell you, Mr. Chairman, I have a lot of people in my district in east Texas who live in mobile homes. They can't afford carnelian granite water tables that apparently the CFPB is going to enjoy that my constituents have to pay for, and the only shady tree bosque to be found in east Texas in the Fifth District are those where hardworking ranchers work their cattle. Instead of rest and contemplation to be enjoyed by CFPB's employees, because of such blatant waste, my constituents, instead of rest and contemplation, lay awake at night wondering how they are going to pay the bills and make ends meet. Mr. Chairman, this is what an unaccountable Federal Government agency does. It squanders the people's money because it is not their own and they are not accountable to the people's representatives. So that is why we are here today, Mr. Chairman. We are here to pass H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act, whose primary author, Mr. Duffy of Wisconsin, has done excellent work, along with many other members of our committee. This is a package, Mr. Chairman, of commonsense reforms designed to make the CFPB more accountable and more transparent to the American people. This bill replaces the Bureau's single, unaccountable director with a bipartisan board. It puts the Bureau's employees--whose compensation and benefits average $178,521, it puts them on the civil service pay scale. It introduces a safety and soundness check on its regulations and gives the American people greater control over the massive, massive quantities of personal financial data that the Bureau is collecting and maintaining on them at this time. Mr. Chairman, we do need consumer protection, but consumers just don't need to be protected from Wall Street; they need to be protected from Washington as well. H.R. 3193 will protect them from the CFPB, and the House should pass it without delay today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the distinguished chairman of our Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee and a real leader in preserving consumer opportunity and rights.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2013.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, it is now my honor to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the distinguished majority leader, who has been a tireless advocate for consumer choice and freedom throughout this debate on this unaccountable Bureau and who has led our Congress' effort to bring bills to the floor to stop government abuse.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am now pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer), the chairman of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, who is a key coauthor of this bill, ensuring that the CFPB is accountable through the congressional appropriations process, and who is a real champion of preserving housing opportunities from Washington bureaucrats.

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 5 seconds to encourage the gentleman from Washington to read section 1017 of the Dodd-Frank Act, and he would discover that the CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve, which happens to be taxpayer money. Mr. Chairman, at this time I am happy to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Luetkemeyer), the vice chairman of our Housing and Insurance Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am now pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett), the chairman of our Capital Markets and GSE Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased now to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), the chairman of the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, as we approach the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade, it is my hope that we will take this opportunity to remember the millions of unique and precious human lives ended by the unspeakable tragedy of abortion and bear in mind the devastating consequences it has had for women, children, and families. As a matter of morality, history, science, reason, and most of all faith, I can come to no other conclusion but that every human life begins at conception and every life is worthy of protection. As Americans, we share a sacred responsibility to protect the innocent and defend the rights of those who are unable to defend themselves. Often we hear that we ought to do something for the least of these; truly unborn life is the least of these. Let us recognize it. Let us hold it precious. Let us live up to our responsibilities from the Creator and grant those yet to be born that precious right to life. The struggle to protect life is at its core a struggle to change hearts and minds. It requires faith, reason, debate, compassion, and action. On January 22, thousands of citizens will take action by participating in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Many more in Texas and across the country will stand with them at local events fighting for the rights of the unborn and celebrating the sanctity of life. I applaud those who take part, both in body and spirit, and I hope for the day when all Americans will come together and decide to protect and defend the unalienable right to life.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I am now privileged to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt), the primary author of this legislation, a real leader on our committee and in this Congress in creating jobs.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am very happy to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett), a coauthor of the legislation and the chairman of the Capital Markets and GSE Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material for the Record on H.R. 1105, currently under consideration.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, since Congress was not in session last week, perhaps some of my colleagues missed the front page headline from The Washington Post. I read: ``Among American Workers, Poll Finds Unprecedented Anxiety About Jobs and Economy.'' According to the report, American workers are living with ``unprecedented economic anxiety.'' More than six in 10 worry that they will lose their jobs. Nearly one in 3 say they worry a lot about losing their jobs. The article goes on to mention an American named John Stewart who wakes up every morning at 1:30 a.m. for a 2-hour commute to catch two different buses in Philadelphia so he can get to work on time. In the newspaper, he said: ``I can't save money to buy the things I need to live as a human being.'' Mr. Speaker, we don't have to read The Washington Post. All we have to do is listen to our own constituents, since even today millions-- millions--of our fellow countrymen remain unemployed and underemployed. I hear these stories every week myself. Recently, I heard from Ida in Wills Point, Texas, in the Fifth Congressional District that I represent. She and her 79-year-old husband own a small trucking company. She wrote me that ``because of increasing regulations in taxes in the past 4 years, we have lost all but two of our trucks.'' She goes on to write me: ``My husband is the only driver right now because I can no longer drive. He drives full-time 3,500 miles a week most weeks because we can't live on his Social Security.'' She says: ``We are really stuck in a hole.'' Millions, Mr. Speaker, are ``stuck in a hole.'' Today, we have an opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to do something to help raise many of our fellow countrymen out of that hole of economic anxiety and economic hardship. Today, we have the opportunity to pass H.R. 1105, the Small Business Capital Access and Jobs Preservation Act. I want to commend the bipartisan group of Members--two Republicans and two Democrats--who introduced the bill: Mr. Hurt of Virginia, Mr. Himes of Connecticut, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, and Mr. Cooper of Tennessee. As chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all the members of the committee who came together across party lines to approve the bill. Mr. Speaker, nearly one-third of the Democrats who sit on our committee joined with 30 Republicans in supporting H.R. 1105. In short, Mr. Speaker, this is, indeed, a bipartisan jobs bill. We know that small businesses face an incredible red tape burden. In fact, a recent survey of the National Federation of Independent Business said that ``government regulations and red tape are the single most important challenge that small businesses face in creating and preserving jobs.'' Mr. Speaker, I heard from another small business person in Grand Saline, Texas, in my district. He said because of overregulation ``our business has devolved from one that provides a service for a customer into one that provides that same service as an afterthought while our real efforts go into paperwork.'' Mr. Speaker, we can debate the relative merits or demerits of the Dodd-Frank Act; but even the primary author himself, former Chairman Frank, admitted that perhaps not every aspect of Dodd-Frank achieved perfection. And many of us would argue on a bipartisan basis that the part of the act that requires small business investors who are private equity advisers to register with the SEC is perhaps one of those provisions that is in need of reform. This is a provision, Mr. Speaker, that many of us believe was aimed at Wall Street, but ends up hurting Main Street. Because of this provision embedded in Dodd-Frank, smaller firms that invest in entrepreneurs and in small businesses face yet one more significant regulatory cost, regulatory burden, more red tape. As one of the small business investors testified before our committee, it is going to cost his company $200,000 every year to comply with the regulation. He went on to say: While for some larger firms this is an insignificant cost, for a medium-sized firm such as ours that offers capital to small businesses, it is a significant expense. And pay attention to this, Mr. Speaker. He said: This money comes directly out of our funds intended for investment into Main Street. In today's economy, to help pull these people out of this hole of economic anxiety, we need more private sector, more private equity investment into Main Street. Private equity equals small business jobs. In fact, Mr. Speaker, between 1995 and 2010, 23,000 different companies across our Nation benefited from private equity investment, employing 3 million different people, and the investments that are made by private equity historically have grown jobs at three times the rate of other companies. And so what does this look like? I have to tell you, Mr. Speaker, it look likes an outfit called New Mountain Capital that invested in a company named Inmar, a national coupon and reverse logistics processing company. By helping them update their IT with a $100 million investment, they now support 4,200 different employees. The face of private equity looks like Capital South Partners that invested in a North Carolina firm, Vita Nonwovens, and now they have 95 employees in High Point, North Carolina, and I should add parenthetically, another 55 employees in my native Texas. This is the face of private equity. These are some of the small business jobs that are being created. Now, we may hear from some that this is needed to somehow battle Wall Street, but let me tell you what private equity is not. Private equity it is not Wall Street. It is not complex derivatives trading. It is not currency swaps. Mr. Speaker, it is not about systemic risk. That is not what this is about. And so, again, this was a provision aimed at Wall Street that, unfortunately, is hitting Main Street. It is time to make sure that Americans like John in Philadelphia can live like a human being. It is time to make sure that constituents like mine, Ida and her husband, don't have to drive 3,500 miles a week just so they can put food on the table. Mr. Speaker, it is time, again, for this institution to put jobs first, not regulators first, but jobs first. I urge all of my colleagues to adopt H.R. 1105. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 429, I call up the bill (H.R. 1105) to amend the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to provide a registration exemption for private equity fund advisers, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. HENSARLING. By definition, it is private equity. It is not a public fund.

Mr. HENSARLING. Will the gentleman yield?