Randy Neugebauer

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chairman, I don't think that there's any disagreement in this House, and certainly not on our side, that predatory lending is bad, and we have taken steps to do that. The Fed has taken steps to do that. We want to make sure that people have the right choice of mortgage to be able to take a mortgage out that allows them to own a home. The problem with this bill is that it really starts to mess up the conduit of how mortgages are made. And a little bit of history on that is a mortgage is made in your local bank or a mortgage banking company. It is then sold into the secondary market. Investors buy those mortgages so that those banks and mortgage companies can originate more loans, and that's how we have built this great housing market in this country. What this bill does is it begins to put liability and uncertainty at a time there's already a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the secondary market. In fact, the secondary market in this country right now is shut down because of uncertainty, and now we want to dump a whole bunch or more of contingent liability and uncertainty on the secondary market to the point where I'm not sure whether we'll ever be able to start that engine. So what I think what our colleagues are trying to do is to say somehow that Republicans are not against the predatory lending. Of course we're against predatory lending, and steps have been taken. But what we are for is making sure that there is a mortgage market left when this all blows over. Yes, the market has had a hiccup and people are now trying to ascertain what the new rules are going to be. They've seen the government take over banks and get involved in all kinds of businesses. So there is a lot of uncertainty out there. And the question is, was a lot of this a lack of oversight or was it a lack of a bunch of regulations? I would submit in many cases this was a case where there was not appropriate oversight.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I yield myself an additional minute.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. It is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I would ask the gentleman, does he have any additional speakers?

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Republicans are for good disclosure, open disclosure, easy-to-read disclosure. We are for responsible lending. We are also for making sure that the American people have low-cost mortgage choices. What we are not for is a legislation that limits those choices, that chokes a very fragile credit market and increases the cost of credit for American families all across this country. One of the things that is most important to American families today is, you know, the cash flow piece of it. And what we are going to do now is put so many restrictions on this market that people are going to build into that a cost for mortgages, and so mortgage rates are going to go up, choices are going to go down. And with this legislation, I am afraid we may never see a secondary market that was as good and as fruitful for mortgage lending as the previous one we had. That's the reason I am going to encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this legislation. We can do better than that. We do not have to shut down the mortgage market, but we can make for responsible lending.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, the bill itself I think reached a compromise on this issue as well as the Federal regulations that came out about this, and basically it allows it to prorate that. So if there were an introductory period where the interest rate was lower and then later on that introductory period passed, it was fair to prorate the payments between the two rates, the old rate and the new rate. This one now allows the payment to be applied to the introductory rate. And thereby, I think what it is going to do--and again, we talk about choice. It is going to continue to restrict the kinds of cards and choices that the American people are going to be able to use and look at and be given from the various credit card companies. And so I am opposed to this. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. May I inquire how much time I have remaining.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition, but I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, we have no opposition to this amendment.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. We do not claim any time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished ranking member, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Madam Chair, it is my privilege at this time to yield so much time as he may consume to my good friend from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I want to thank the gentleman. We had a tremendous amount of discussion about the pay-to-pay provision in this bill. One of the things that we don't want to do is to prevent the cardholders' ability to be able to make payments by telephone or by other means. However, a number of these companies have invested a lot of money in the technology to allow consumers to be able to pay their credit cards in different ways and thereby avoid late fees. A concern that many of us had was, if we somehow regulated and denied the ability completely of credit card companies to be able to charge a fee for this service, that they would discontinue it. We felt like that might even cost consumers more money because they would be charged late fees and interest. I also appreciate the gentleman in that, I think, all of us believe that disclosure is an important part of making credit card use a better tool for consumers, and I'm glad to see that the gentleman also has some additional disclosure provisions in here as to the size of the type. So I think this particular amendment makes the overall bill better, and I thank the gentleman for his amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. At this time, I would like to yield such time as he may consume to my good friend from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Madam Chairman, I just want to reiterate what my friend from Texas said is that we do need to make sure we understand the intended and unintended consequences of this legislation and how it's going to impact consumers who use credit cards. Like the gentleman from Texas, I'm disappointed that we're going to wait for 2 years to get those results, but I do think it's important that the agencies involved here make sure that if we have gone down a road that has a negative impact on the people that use our credit cards and depend on them, we need to know about that. With that, I yield back.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. I think one of the concerns I have is this is a road we seem to be going down every day in these first hundred days, and that is the Federal Government telling people what they can and cannot do. I was shocked this week when the EPA administrator Lisa Jackson told public radio that it was time for America to have a single roadmap and for the government to tell Americans what kind of cars they ought to be driving. Now we have an amendment here that's going to tell college students whether they can have a credit card or not. This is not the America that our Founding Fathers founded. They founded this Nation on empowerment and they founded it on the basis of freedom of choice, and now we're taking choices away. And like the gentleman from Texas just said, my wife and I put ourselves through college. We felt like we were fairly responsible. We weren't getting student loans, we were working. From time to time we needed a little extra help, and we were able to use our gasoline credit card or our credit card for unforeseen expenses. Now we're telling people 18-21 the government doesn't think you ought to have a credit card or you're not responsible enough to have a credit card. So now we have an amendment that says, By the way, we're not going to teach you how to use your credit appropriately. We're just going to take your credit away. Anybody that knows what challenges that young people in college are facing today would know that this is not a good thing for these young people. Many of them are working their way through school and they use this credit card as a valuable tool. Ranking Member Bachus said 77 percent of students and universities are using these cards. Not all of them are using them irresponsibly. So now for those people that feel like that somehow there's predatory activities going on, we're going to take that right away.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I have no further speakers, and I yield back my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Madam Chair, I rise to claim time in opposition, but I'm not opposed to the amendment.