Randy Neugebauer

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and add extraneous materials on the bill.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a noncontroversial, bipartisan bill. It was carried by the Democratic Representative from American Samoa last Congress. This is a proconsumer measure that would improve the check clearing wait times in American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Other noncontiguous U.S. States and territories are already subject to this act. This bill provides parity and helps improve financial services in American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. This bill passed the House on suspension last Congress. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1367) to amend the Expedited Funds Availability Act to clarify the application of that Act to American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I will read a statement that Mrs. Radewagen of American Samoa submitted to me in reference to this. She is the primary sponsor. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1367, to amend the Expedited Funds Availability Act to clarify the application of that act to American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. I would first like to thank Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters, as well as the House Financial Services Committee staff, who worked so hard to get this bill to the floor. I appreciate their dedication, as do the people of American Samoa and the CNMI. As you know, the isolation of American Samoa, both geographically and economically, lends itself to difficulties in financial transactions that take place between American Samoa and those off island. Many times, our citizens and businesses must wait an exorbitant amount of time before they can receive off-island funds that have been sent to them. These delays often cause hardships that are both unnecessary and unfounded. H.R. 1367 will eliminate the excessive delays that the people of American Samoa must currently deal with in order to receive funds sent to them from off-island. Again, I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters for their consideration of this measure that will greatly improve the lives of the people of American Samoa. Mr. Speaker, I ask all Members of the House of Representatives to vote in favor of this bill that will bring American Samoa and the CNMI into the fold financially in regards to off-island transactions. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and add extraneous materials on this bill.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1480) to ensure access to certain information for financial services industry regulators, and for other purposes.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. The SAFE Act is a simple, bipartisan bill that encourages information-sharing between Federal and State regulators. Ensuring the confidentiality of information provided to the National Mortgage Licensing System encourages its uses, which better protects consumers from bad actors who switch States for licensing purposes to evade scrutiny. This legislation provides assurance for financial institutions that privileged information shared between Federal banking regulators and State regulatory agencies will be protected and remain confidential. This will encourage a greater amount of sharing between institutions and their regulators, and will allow our Nation's financial regulators to do their jobs to ensure that our financial institutions are operating lawfully, while, at the same time, able to offer consumer credit products that are critical to Americans to finance their everyday purchases and start small businesses. The NMLS is used by regulators in all 50 States, and it is supported by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. This bill passed the House on suspension last Congress, and it passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Dold), the primary author of this bill, who has worked tirelessly in this area.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, this truly is a bipartisan bill. It is a commonsense bill. I think the whole group of bills that we have seen this afternoon will go a long way to helping keep commonsense regulations; at the same time, making sure the consumers are protected. So I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers at this time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I just want to echo the remarks that have been made. This is a commonsense bill. It helps Main Street, and it helps consumers. There was a little glitch here in the marketplace when these privately insured credit unions were not able to access the Federal Home Loan Banks. It just makes sense that they do that. This bill passed out of our committee 56-1. With that, I urge my colleagues to pass this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 601) to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to provide an exception to the annual privacy notice requirement.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I don't have any other speakers, so I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I just want to add my support as well to this bill. This is a commonsense bill. This bill passed 57-0 in our committee. It ends a lot of confusion. You get those privacy notices when you open those accounts, and then all of a sudden next year you get another one, and you are trying to figure out whether you should have gotten one, if you should read that. What we have found is that probably a lot of people aren't reading those. This is a very commonsense bill, and I encourage people to support that. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1259) to provide for an application process for interested parties to apply for an area to be designated as a rural area, and for other purposes.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and add extraneous materials on this bill.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), one of the primary authors of this bill.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I don't have any other speakers at this time, so I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Wisconsin's work on this. Some of the points that he made is that this is about transparency. Why that is important is because this agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is making the important decisions about the kinds of financial products that American families can access. Quite honestly, some people think that, in many ways, the actions of this agency have been beginning to reduce some of the availability of some of those financial products. I think it is important to have these advisory groups. I want to commend the agency for having those, but I think it is important, also, for the American people to hear the comments and the discussions that are going on that could inevitably affect the kinds of financial products that they are going to be able to access in the future. Now, the fact is that many of the other agencies have to fall under the FACA, but because this agency is tucked inside the Federal Reserve--and the Federal Reserve currently is exempt--but, quite honestly, the only other agencies that are exempt from it are the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Federal Reserve as they are talking about monetary policy. I hardly believe that the CFPB falls in the same category of any of these other agencies that are exempt. This is a commonsense piece of legislation. It allows that same transparency available in all other agencies across the government and allows the American people to hear those important discussions about their future and about the financial products that they are going to be able to access in the future. Again, I want to remind everybody this was a bipartisan bill that passed 56-2 out of our committee. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to welcome to the House of Representatives today's guest chaplain and my fellow Lubbock, Texas, native, Jon Randles. Jon is joined here today by his wife, Kelly; his two sons, Zack and Sam; and their wives, Autumn and Jennifer; his daughter, Hayley; and her husband, Chance; as well as their grandchildren. Also here are 70 members of his congregation. Jon has been engaged in two career paths: he has served as both a pastor and a nationwide motivational speaker. He began pastoring the first of his four churches as a college sophomore at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He has a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and did doctorate studies in ancient Roman history at Texas Tech University. He served as Director of Evangelism at the Baptist General Convention of Texas. In 2010, as a contractor for the U.S. Air Force, he crafted a program for senior officers to mentor members of the junior force. In 2013, after 20 years as an evangelist and a motivational speaker, he returned to pastoring and is currently the senior pastor at Victory Life Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas. In all of his endeavors, Jon has encouraged excellence and character. But most of all, Jon has impacted countless lives by his witness and testimony of Jesus Christ. Jon has the heart of a lion and a tremendous amount of faith. As he battles pancreatic cancer, he is an amazing example to all of us how to run the race God has set out for each of us. May God bless Jon Randles, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 26) to extend the termination date of the Terrorism Insurance Program established under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, and for other purposes.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material for the Record on H.R. 26, currently under consideration.

Mr. NEUGEBAUER

Mr. NEUGEBAUER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act, H.R. 23. I also want to thank Chairman Smith for his leadership on this issue, and I appreciate him agreeing to bring this back up early in the 114th Congress. I think we have already heard of a number of people quote a lot of statistics about the amount of damage that occurs from windstorms in this country and the loss of lives. You know, particularly 2011 was a very bad year. As it was pointed out, we had a number of people that were killed that year and over $28 billion in damage to property alone. What is happening is the risk is growing because our population centers are growing. You know, a tornado that goes through a town center does a lot more damage than one that goes through an empty prairie. As these storms are getting costlier over time, at a time where we are $18 trillion in debt, it is important that we utilize the taxpayers' resources in an effective way. This particular program, as it was mentioned, is reauthorized at a fixed level, the level from previous reauthorization, but also it is designed to make the program more efficient and effective in the future. When a family loses a home, you know, they don't have to just rebuild the house; they have to rebuild their lives. We know a lot of people have either experienced losses of property or life, loved ones, or they know people that have. In particular, it is a personal thing for me because, on May 11th of 1970, I had just taken my last final for that semester at Texas Tech University, and 3 hours or 4 hours later, a major tornado ripped through Lubbock, Texas, and killed 26 people, including destroying the apartment complex that I lived in. I was fortunately unharmed in that event, but what I did get to witness is the tremendous amount of damage that can happen from these storms and the loss of life. You saw things that you didn't think were possible--cars in parking lots that were rolled up and swirled up like an ice cream cone. So one of the things that later on, to me, in the building business, one of the things that we began to learn is, from important research that was done, that we were able to use certain building techniques that made houses more wind resistant, made buildings more wind resistant, and that is exactly what this bill, NWIRP, does. It takes these four agencies that currently have jurisdiction over that--and those include NOAA, the National Science Foundation, FEMA, and NIST-- and makes sure that they are using those funds appropriately and that there is not a lot of duplication in the research going on. Each one of them has an area of expertise. We want to do a better job of predicting these storms. We want to do a better job of learning how we can mitigate the damage from those. One of the things that happened right after the May 11 tornado in Lubbock is that Texas Tech University began doing research on windstorms and the effects of different materials, and later on they founded the National Wind Institute, which is doing important research on simulating cyclones and different kinds of wind events and the impact that they have on materials and certain building techniques. Certainly that will be important to our country as we move forward. What does that do for the taxpayers? Well, obviously if we can learn more about predicting the outcomes, we can make our buildings stronger, but, more importantly, save lives. And one of the things I know from a lot of the research that has been going on right now, that designs are being incorporated in a lot of buildings. Recently I was at a new elementary school in my district, and one of the things that we learned is that they incorporated certain building techniques within the cafeteria of that new elementary. Basically, the cafeteria became a storm shelter for the students going to that elementary. Those are the kind of things that will be beneficial from this. I urge my colleagues to help me reauthorize H.R. 23.