J. Hill

Mr. HILL of Arkansas

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the Congressional Budget Office score for this bill.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6556, the Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act, offered by my friend from Massachusetts. When a bank fails, regulators need to move fast to protect depositors, preserve confidence in our financial system, consider potential buyers, and minimize disruption to families, businesses, and communities. All of that often takes place in a very short period of time, between Friday at close of business and Monday morning at opening for business. At that same time, those decisions should be made by a process that is fair, transparent, and promotes competition. Under current law, Federal regulators are generally prohibited from approving a merger or acquisition of a failed or failing bank if the resulting institution would control more than 10 percent or more of deposits nationwide. However, regulators are allowed to waive these concentration limits under certain circumstances. H.R. 6556 restricts when those concentration limits can be waived to situations in which there are no other qualified bidders for that failed bank and the transaction is necessary to prevent significant economic disruption or adverse effects on U.S. financial stability. This legislation helps address concentration in the U.S. banking sector and promote a more transparent, competitive, and accountable approach to resolving failing banks. This legislation includes critical guardrails, such as requiring regulators to report to Congress within 30 days of a waiver on why the waiver was granted, why other qualified alternatives were not selected, and any recommendations for legislative or regulatory changes to improve competition for future bank resolutions. That transparency helps to ensure that these decisions are made in the best interests of depositors; our financial system at large; and, of course, the American people. This is a practical, bipartisan reform that strengthens oversight, promotes competition, and reinforces confidence in the bank resolution process, while preserving regulators' ability to respond to bank failures. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for his leadership on this legislation, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 6556. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I join my friend from Massachusetts in speaking to the importance of this bill and provide just a couple of minutes of perspective. If you go back to the 1980s, it was a period of Third World debt crisis, the oil and gas lending crisis, and the real estate lending crisis culminating in the late 1980s with really the collapse of the savings and loan industry across the country from too lax supervision and too lax management of these institutions. In both large banks like the famous Continental Illinois failure in Chicago to some of the large thrifts, the government chose to keep banks open rather than closing them by essentially taking a note back called open bank assistance. It essentially increased the losses to the taxpayers. After the resolution of the savings and loan bank crisis and all the other related bank failures of the 1980s and very early 1990s, the government said, look, this is out of hand, and we want to enforce a least cost resolution process when a bank fails, meaning we don't want to lose more money after the closing by trying to keep these banks open. So they offered this ability that whoever paid the highest price, thus the least cost to the taxpayers, was the winner, which is good policy. However, now it is 30 years later, and the largest banks in the country, as outlined by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), have a disproportionate ability to bid $1 more and thus be the least cost to the taxpayer--or maybe after the last debate one penny more-- and be the least cost to the taxpayer. That means that it is very hard to compete with them. What the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) has proposed is let us have more bidding for those failed banks by crafting a process that is transparent that Congress oversees, Congress outlines the guardrails, where smaller banks could team up with other capital sources and bid for one of those failed banks and end up being in a much more competitive process. What the government gets is a more diversified, more competitive banking system instead of the default winner being one of the big five existing financial institutions. I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for his work on this legislation. I thank Chairman Barr of our Financial Institutions Subcommittee and Ranking Member Waters for bringing our bipartisan team together on the committee in advancing this bill. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to vote ``yes'' on this measure. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the bill. I appreciate the work on both sides of the aisle, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1423, I call up the bill (H.R. 1181) to prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a firearms retailer from general- merchandise retailer or sporting-goods retailer, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Mr. Moore's Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. Financial privacy is fundamental to consumer trust and confidence in our financial system. As technology continues to transform financial services, protecting Americans' financial privacy remains an essential part of Congress' oversight role. Merchant category codes were designed to help process transactions, not create mechanisms for tracking or categorizing lawful purchases. Maintaining trust in the payment system requires clear safeguards to ensure that these tools are used for commerce, not consumer surveillance. H.R. 1181 establishes those safeguards by preventing payment card networks and processors from using merchant category codes to target firearms retailers and their customers. The Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act provides important protections for consumers by preventing the misuse of payment systems to monitor lawful purchasing activity. Consumers should not have to sacrifice their financial privacy in order to participate in our modern economy. Protecting financial privacy helps reinforce confidence in the institutions and infrastructure that our payment systems operate around. Americans should be able to participate in the economy with confidence that their lawful transactions are simply being processed, not tracked or categorized or scrutinized beyond what is never necessary to essentially facilitate the payment. This bill helps preserve the integrity of that payment system by keeping it focused on facilitating commerce and efficient movement of funds. Importantly, this bill does not interfere with any existing law enforcement authorities, anti-money laundering requirements, fraud prevention efforts, or other obligations designed to protect consumers and safeguard our financial system. H.R. 1181 is a commonsense measure that simply safeguards financial privacy while maintaining the integrity of our Nation's payment network. I urge all my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Moore), who is the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), who chairs the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan), the distinguished chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lee).

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for this debate. I thank Mr. Moore for writing this bill, drafting it, persuading the support that he has. I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill in the name of privacy in the United States. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me thank Chairman Flood and Ranking Member Cleaver of the subcommittee and certainly our full committee ranking member, Ms. Waters, for their work with the majority to craft this extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The reauthorization of this program is important. I thank, on a bipartisan basis, those who have worked to bring it to fruition. Every Member of this body, Mr. Speaker, including you, my friend, knows where they were on September 11, 2001. That day changed everything, including how America thought about risk. Before those attacks, the private insurance market handled terrorism risk like any other. After 9/11, no insurer could price it or absorb it alone. Congress subsequently created TRIA in 2002. The purpose of TRIA is spelled out in the original law. Section 101(b) states that TRIA is designed to provide for ``a transparent system of shared public and private compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of terrorism in order to protect consumers.'' That is the goal here, to give policyholders access to the financial protection and confidence they need to build skyscrapers, sports venues, and malls, and employ workers that drive our economy. Each reauthorization is an opportunity to look at what is working and what is not and to look at what adjustments are needed to keep delivering market certainty and stability. As time has passed, quirks in TRIA have appeared that make it harder for those policyholders to get their claims paid quickly and fully and left insurers adrift in the lurch of a clunky will-they/won't-they certification process. Mr. Flood's bill today proposes a modest set of improvements that will add clarity to the certification process and make it easier for insurers to pay their claims in a timely manner and easier for policyholders to recover financially when they need those payments the most. Throughout this process, we have sought feedback from Members on both sides of the aisle and others as we have moved to get out in front of this program's scheduled expiration in December 2027 so that everyone would have an opportunity to review and debate the modest improvements contained in this measure. The reality is that terrorism is now, unfortunately, a permanent fixture of American life. Whether you are in Los Angeles, the Big Apple, or Little Rock, this risk does not respect geography, and it does not go away. I urge my colleagues to support Mr. Flood's bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I agree with his assessment. It is true that TRIA was designed to create certainty, not doubt, for our businesses, indeed our economy at large after something unthinkable takes place. It requires insurance companies to make stand-alone terrorism coverage available to their clients, who can choose to purchase it or not in addition to their traditional business insurance coverage. That was the system we devised more than two decades ago to provide continuity after a large-scale terrorism event, as well as to provide businesses the fastest path to economic recovery. It simply would not work within the spirit of the law or the confines of this reauthorization to pursue pathways that interrupted that system and flow of that important post-event recovery capital. I am very pleased, as my friend from Missouri knows, that Ranking Member Waters and I have worked to include some small but important reforms to the post-event process to make sure that policyholders can get their claims paid more fully and quickly, the way that TRIA intended. Simply put, TRIA should always be about putting affected policyholders first, and that is represented in the bill text that we are voting on today. I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I echo agreement with Ranking Member Cleaver's words today as well as the chairman of our subcommittee, Mike Flood, and his hard work on both sides of the aisle to bring forward this 7-year reauthorization of this critically important program well in advance of its expiration. Mr. Speaker, what I love about this is the majority and the minority, working together for the benefit of the American economy, are getting this done well in advance of any loss or gap in coverage. We know it is important. We treasure the fact that we are in the semiquincentennial year of our country's life, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, but everybody in the back of their mind on this House floor in the coming weeks will be thinking about another anniversary, one that we are not celebrating with fireworks or bands or parades, and that is, sadly, the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks on Washington, New York, and our country at large. It makes us sad, and we reflect on those who we lost, the claims that we are still paying, the families that are still mourning. This bill is an important reminder that we have an obligation to our country to do things right, to be thinking about the future, to be thinking about our Nation's economic growth, prosperity, and the safety of the American people. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to answer this call today and support this 7-year reauthorization of our Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2478) to amend the Investment Company Act of 1940 to postpone the date of payment or satisfaction upon redemption of certain securities in the case of the financial exploitation of specified adults, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the Congressional Budget Office estimate for this bill. H.R. 2478, FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION PREVENTION ACT OF 2025, AS REPORTED BY

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in full support of our distinguished chair of our Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Mrs. Wagner from Missouri, and her bill that she presents today, the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2025. Every day, bad actors use fraud, scams, and deception to target the most vulnerable in our society who may be less able to recognize or respond immediately and timely to some form of financial abuse. Literally, over the last few years, I have been inundated every time I am in my district and community, like my hometown of Little Rock. I hear directly from citizens, the elderly, customers, bankers, small business owners, and all consumers who are grappling with check fraud, wire fraud, and increasingly sophisticated digital scams. My own family has been victim of check fraud more than one time. I am grateful to the bank that helped identify that with their system. Mr. Speaker, our financial institutions, our broker-dealers, and our investment companies are all saddled with being in the first line of defense against these schemes that are coming in every shape and form, electronically, by paper, and over the telephone, that are targeting the customers and clients of our financial services companies. These banks, broker-dealers, and investment companies are uniquely positioned to identify suspicious transactions and unusual account activity. That is the whole mission. We have given those authorities, and they have invested billions in surveillance technology to try to do that. When warning signs emerge, firms should have the ability to take reasonable steps to put their customers first and to protect those customers from potential harm. Chair Wagner's bill, H.R. 2478, which has strong bipartisan support and cosponsorship, strengthens those exact protections by providing financial institutions and other financial professionals and investment companies with the legal certainty needed to temporarily delay transactions when financial exploitation or abuse is suspected. This legislation is part of the Financial Services Committee's broader effort to combat financial fraud and scams plaguing our citizens, our neighbors, particularly seniors, and other vulnerable Americans. By creating a safe harbor for delaying suspicious transactions and reporting concerns to the appropriate authorities, this bill helps prevent devastating financial losses before they occur. Protecting Americans from financial exploitation requires strong coordination among families, financial institutions, brokers, financial advisers, and, of course, law enforcement. This bill would help strengthen those partnerships and provide additional tools to safeguard the most vulnerable among us from an avalanche of fraud and abuse. Importantly, too, this bill is tailored to address suspected exploitation while preserving the rights of customers and maintaining appropriate oversight. No American should lose their hard-earned money because an investment firm or financial institution lacks the authority or certainty to intervene where there are clear signs of exploitation that were present. H.R. 2478 is a commonsense, bipartisan measure that helps protect our most vulnerable citizens from the growing number of financial predators. I thank Chair Wagner and Mr. Gottheimer of New Jersey for their leadership on this important issue. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner), who is the chair of the Capital Markets Subcommittee. She has worked on this and has been a leader in every way she can in the House to protect our friends and our neighbors from financial fraud.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member and Mr. Gottheimer for working with the majority on this bill. I will add that this is a very complex subject across the board trying to protect our seniors and our consumers across the country, particularly in financial services. I think this bill is a step in the right direction, but we have many other things that the committee has been working on on a bipartisan basis. The Postal Service, the Secret Service, the Federal communications oversight, Federal Trade Commission, all these Federal agencies have influence on whether we are going to beat the criminals at their game. As they get artificial intelligence and new technologies to try to get in the pocketbooks, in the investment statements, into the credit cards of American consumers and households, know that people like Ann Wagner, Josh Gottheimer, Maxine Waters, and French Hill are saying no. We want to give the tools to our financial institutions and enforcement to do something about it, but it also takes an education of our families. You can't turn your password over to people. You can't trust people when they call you on the phone and tell you to bring $5,000 down to the courthouse or put money in a bitcoin ATM. We also have that obligation every day on this House floor to educate our families to trust but verify when somebody approaches them about their very, very valuable financial information. A Member of Congress from North Carolina called me and said: Is there any way you would be willing to talk to this lawyer, this family in North Carolina? Husband and wife retired, the spouse, the wife, said: I have been called. I need to send $250,000 for this investment opportunity. The husband said: I don't know that we should do that. She said: Well, I have done my homework. She called the bank, Mr. Speaker, and said: Would you wire $250,000 to this investment opportunity. And the banker said: Ms. Jones, I mean, are you sure? You have never done this before. You don't have that kind of money. Mr. Speaker, I use that as a small example. It didn't turn out well, but it is about educating. Again, the work that Chairwoman Wagner and Representative Gottheimer are doing is what we need to be doing. We are going to continue to bring bills to this House floor that protect our households from the fraudsters that are now going parabolic in their talent to steal our money through artificial intelligence, cell phones, text messages, emails, romance schemes, whatever that is, but she pointed it out, and I am with her. We are going to do this together. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill. I thank the gentlewoman for bringing it to the floor today, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.