Maxine Waters

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2989, the Financial Transparency Act of 2021. As chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, I would like to thank Representative Maloney for her leadership on this bill, as well as Representative McHenry, the ranking member of the committee, for working on this bill in a bipartisan manner. The Financial Transparency Act takes a proactive approach to modernizing our data standards and publication protocols within the financial services industry. This bill requires that the SEC, FDIC, OCC, CFPB, Federal Reserve, NCUA, and FHFA work with the Treasury Department to adopt data standards for the information it collects and to upgrade their reporting requirements so that reported data is stored in an open, searchable, and accessible manner. The bill also ensures that these standards are created in a coordinated manner to enable searchability across these agencies, helping to catch bad actors more easily while promoting greater transparency and trust from the public in our financial system. In this digital age, it is imperative that our regulators keep up with our rapidly changing financial markets and utilize technology in a way that safeguards our data while promoting the safety and soundness of our financial system. This bill puts the United States on equal footing with many other countries that already have begun using searchable data formats in submissions to regulators. This commonsense bill would also benefit retail investors, as they will be able to search through publicly available documents, rather than having to manually save each document in order to extract the information they want. In addition, companies that analyze this data will be able to more quickly report their findings to the public, helping better inform the investing public about the state of our capital markets. H.R. 2989 will also benefit regulated entities, like banks, credit unions, asset managers, and public companies, as they will now have clearly delineated criteria and frameworks to upload their data, ensuring consistent data standards and the ability for financial institutions to do more efficient compliance tasks that must be performed manually today. For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on Agriculture, Washington, DC, October 25, 2021. Hon. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman, Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Madam Chairwoman: This letter confirms our mutual understanding regarding H.R. 2989, the Financial Transparency Act of 2021. Thank you for collaborating with the Committee on Agriculture on the matters within our jurisdiction. The Committee on Agriculture will forego any further consideration of this bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for consideration. However, by foregoing consideration at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over any subject matter contained in this or similar legislation. We request that our Committee be consulted and involved as this bill moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. The Committee on Agriculture also reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation and ask that you support any such request. We would appreciate a response to this letter confirming this understanding with respect to H.R. 2989, and request that a copy of our letters on this matter be published in the Congressional Record during Floor consideration. Sincerely, David Scott, Chairman.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. 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.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the sponsor of this legislation.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. Mr. Speaker, I would again like to state that I support this bipartisan bill. The Financial Transparency Act of 2021 helps modernize our regulatory framework so that government, private industry, and the public all benefit. Now more than ever, it makes sense for Congress to harness technology in a manner that provides greater transparency, accountability, and efficiency, and this bill does exactly that. I want to thank Representative Maloney and Ranking Member McHenry for working with my staff in a bipartisan manner to get this bill across the finish line. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2265, the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act of 2021, sponsored by the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner). It is not a surprise that adults over the age of 65 are sometimes the targets for financial exploitation and have become victims of financial crimes more than any other demographic. Just last week, in its annual report on elder fraud and abuse, the Department of Justice reported that in 2020 alone, seniors suffered over $1 billion in financial losses due to fraud. Unlike other adults, seniors are often dependent on their savings to support them in retirement, making any fraud that much harder to recover from. Brokers and investment managers, who often stand in as the stewards of the savings of seniors, are in a unique position to protect elders from financial crimes. In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission released a policy letter, called a no-action letter, stating that the Commission would not take an enforcement action against the agents of an investment company, including mutual funds, if the person paused a payment or redemption based on the suspicion of financial exploitation. This pause on cashing out the savings of a senior can provide invaluable time to ensure that the redemption is consistent with the will of the senior. H.R. 2265 would codify this SEC letter. It would also make two further changes to describe how a mutual fund adviser can establish the process at each fund to protect seniors. I thank Mrs. Wagner for working with my staff to craft the language in this bill. This is a helpful piece of legislation that will provide one more tool to market participants to protect investors and, in particular, our Nation's retirees. I urge Members to support H.R. 2265, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further Democratic speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I simply ask all of my colleagues, all the Members of this House, to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), who is also the Chair of the Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres), my friend.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on my Special Order, and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, last month, the House Financial Services Committee Democrats unanimously passed the housing title of the Build Back Better Act to provide $327 billion in critical investments needed to affordably house America and invest in neighborhoods across the country. With the inclusion of my committee's housing title, the Build Back Better Act will create over 3 million affordable and accessible homes. It will fully address the needed repairs in public housing so residents can safely live in their homes with dignity. It will help an estimated 750,000 households afford their rent or exit homelessness through expanded housing choice vouchers. It will address the racial wealth gap by helping first-generation home buyers access homeownership. These investments will help the schoolteacher experiencing homelessness; the children exposed to lead and other harmful toxins in their homes; the elderly neighbor who can't afford their prescription medications on a fixed income because the rent and mortgage is too high; the millennial who cannot rely on the bank of mom and dad for a downpayment to purchase their first home; and the millions of families that hang in the balance of imminent eviction or foreclosure due to the pandemic. Just today, my committee heard from several witnesses on the importance of the housing choice voucher program and how transformational it can be for a family to receive this assistance. Harvard Professor Raj Chetty testified about his research showing that children whose families received a housing choice voucher to move to low-poverty neighborhoods later in life earned 30 percent more than children who remained in high-poverty neighborhoods. Another witness testified about how the voucher program helps his clients escape homelessness and achieve housing stability. Housing is at the center of every household's economic stability and our Nation's prosperity. Without these investments in resilient, healthy, accessible, and fair housing, the Build Back Better Act will not improve the lives of families across the country, as we have promised it will. Mr. Speaker, I am going to try, in the best way that I possibly can, to describe what is happening in the Congress of the United States of America. This build back mission, this act, is the vision of the President of the United States of America. President Biden has taken the leadership for job creation. He has taken the leadership to deal with some of the equity issues in this country. He has taken the leadership to do everything that can be done to ensure that we invest in the human potential of the citizens of this country. He is doing everything that he can to deal with the pandemic, and he is unearthing and revealing the softness in our economy, in our society, prior to that pandemic, and this is difficult work. This is not easy. Of course, eventually, we had to deal with the fact that we have some who were resisting the mission of the President to build back better. At one point in time, I know there was some talk about a $600 trillion bill. And, of course, we have heard most about a $327 trillion bill. So at this point in time, we don't have the cooperation in order to realize the President's mission and vision about what it takes in order to support the citizens of this country in a way that will help to change their lives. However, this is transformative. This is the kind of legislation that the President of the United States has developed and worked with because he understands what it takes to strengthen the economy, to create jobs, to open up opportunities, to deal with rental assistance, and all of these issues. Unfortunately, there are two members of the Democratic Party on the Senate side who do not agree. It has taken us a long time to understand what it is they want, what it is they don't want. But in the final analysis, they do not, at this point in time, support the President's vision. However, those of us who chair committees worked very hard on our portion of the Build Back Better Act. I, as the chair of the Financial Services Committee, worked very hard with our staff in order to identify what is absolutely needed in order to support housing in a real way in this country. Housing issues that have been disregarded, that have not been paid attention to, housing issues that have gone unattended to for so many years, in that, of course, we dealt with public housing and the fact that they were in great disrepair, and they needed the resources necessary to fix those elevators; in order to get the lead out of the paint; in order to make sure that the stairways are safe. I am reminded of the fact that Ms. Velazquez from New York called me from one of the public housing developments last winter when there was no heat in the entire development. So this money is desperately needed for the capital investments that we need to do in public housing. But not only do we deal with public housing, we deal with the fact that there are people who work every day but cannot afford the rents. We deal with people who are paying 50 percent of their income for rent. We deal with people who are on the ground in makeshift tents every day, homeless all over America. One of the issues that has become very important to me is the choice voucher issue. So in addition to the $80 billion that we advocated for public housing, there is another $90 billion that we advocated for the vouchers. This includes not only choice vouchers. It includes project- based vouchers so that we can develop more affordable units. Of course, we recognized what the cities wanted, what they have been dealing with, and what they believe will improve their ability to assist those who are trying to get safely housed. That is the HOME program that the cities love. That is the CDBG program and those programs we funded. In addition to that, I want you to know that Barney Frank and I worked for years in order to come up with the National Housing Trust Fund. So we had $36 billion that we put into that. Now, given that we don't know what the top line is in the Build Back Better Act, and we don't know exactly whether or not our Senators on the opposite side--on the Democratic side or the opposite side--will honor this vision and this leadership of the President. So without knowing what the top line is, we know that probably we are all going to have to take cuts in all the areas that we have worked so hard for. I am certainly prepared to accept our share of that responsibility. I know that cuts have to be made, but they have to be made fairly. And so there was a rumor that there was going to be zero dollars advocated to these choice vouchers and project-based vouchers, and, of course, that made me very unhappy. That caused me to have great concern. I have been working, organizing press conferences, working with the advocates, working with academicians and everybody to help the administration and everybody else understand that we cannot do without adequate vouchers for the people who are in such desperate need of rental assistance. Everywhere all over the United States, particularly in Black and Brown communities, people have been waiting for years to be able to get these vouchers. And so we have a time now by which we are going to be funding some of what is needed in housing, and at the top of my list are the vouchers. I want everybody to know that I have been talking with members of our Caucus and I have been talking with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. We are not backing away from getting a substantial number of vouchers funded. I am not going to back away. I am not going to be shy about it. As a matter of fact, I will let the world know that I and others that I have organized will not vote for any bill that does not have a substantial number of vouchers in it so that we can deal with the longstanding issues of a lack of decent and safe and secure housing in our communities. I don't need to say any more. All I need to let people know is, I am fair. I accept cuts across many of these areas that I have worked so hard for, but I do not want my number one issue in all of this housing to be undermined, neglected. And I do not want the people of our districts who expect their government to come to their aid when they are coming to the aid of others in so many ways--and I respect the fact that in our Caucus and in the Progressive Caucus, we have about five different kinds of interests that we want to see supported. I, tonight, am talking about housing. But I respect the agenda of the Progressive Caucus and the five areas that they have identified. But for me, housing is number one. I will now call on those who are participating this evening. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), who is also my friend and chair of the Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance.

Ms. WATERS. I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke).

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I believe our time has been exhausted. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule, which would pass the House's budget resolution. The budget resolution will make historic investments in housing in this country. We are in the middle of a housing crisis. As chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, it is not lost on me that more than 580,000 people experience homelessness on any given night, while millions of families are, at this moment, paying the bulk of their income toward rent. The bottom line is that housing is infrastructure. This is why I introduced groundbreaking legislation, the Housing Is Infrastructure Act of 2021, to provide more than $600 billion to address our country's affordable housing crisis, increase first-generation homeownership, and end homelessness. While the budget resolution only allocates $339 billion to the Financial Services Committee, this funding is still historic and will transform the lives of millions of families. However, we must first pass the budget resolution so that we can then pass the President's Build Back Better agenda, including this historic funding for housing programs. This rule also brings us one step closer to the critical House passage of H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This President is going to bring all of the Americans who want to come home, home.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, let me start off by making one thing clear. The 15th amendment of the United States Constitution says, ``The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'' And so, I challenge the Supreme Court's decision that gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court's interpretation does the exact opposite of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. But since the 2020 election that broke voter participation records and gave us a democratic majority, Georgia has been ground-zero for voter suppression efforts in this country. Because Black people came out to vote in record numbers, Republican lawmakers in Georgia moved with lightning speed and surgical precision to restrict voting rights. State lawmakers reached deep into their bag of tricks, including eliminating ballot drop box locations, limiting voting days and hours, instituting strict ID requirements, and even going as far as trying to make it a crime to distribute food and water to people waiting in long voting lines. It's clear that these laws aren't about protecting voters. It's about punishing voters for exercising their right to vote. But it's not only Georgia. Since Election Day, we have been experiencing an all-out anti-democratic assault on our voting rights. Eighteen states, all led by Republican governors, have enacted voter suppression laws because they know that when we vote, they lose. They're playing scared, but we have got to play smart. We have seen this type of backlash before. And just as we did in the 1960's, we must pass new civil rights legislation, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, to protect and expand voting rights. The legislation named after my dear friend and civil rights icon, the late Congressman John Lewis, would restore the Voting Rights Act to its full strength, and stem the tide against this flood of voter suppression laws. The For The People Act establishes automatic voter registration. It prohibits the most common forms of voter roll purges. It increases access to the polls. It restores voting rights for the formerly incarcerated, among many other democracy saving provisions. After an election filled with big lies and scare tactics, that culminated in the violent January 6 insurrection, the American people deserve hard assurances that their vote and their voice will continue to count. So, if the Senate needs to eliminate the filibuster to protect voting rights, then that is exactly what it must do. This fight that we are in to protect our sacred right to vote is critical and urgent. Our democracy is on the line, and we are not without options to try and save it.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I'm here to point out just how interconnected the climate emergency is to America's housing crisis and how it impacts communities of color. We are living in a climate emergency. Wildfires are raging, sea levels are rising, and severe weather events are getting stronger. Meanwhile homes are being destroyed, and not nearly enough is being done to address environmental racism and the ways in which communities of color across this country suffer disproportionately from a lack of action. We cannot stand by as corporations, big oil, and industry titans pollute the air we breathe and contaminate the water we drink without consequence. The truth is that these negative environmental factors compound social and economic conditions, and lead to higher levels of chronic health problems such as asthma, diabetes, and hypertension in communities of color and low-income communities. It should surprise no one that on average, people of color comprise 56 percent of the population living in neighborhoods with facilities that release toxic substances into the air and water supply. This is a fair housing issue and a direct result of systemic racism and historically racist policies, including redlining and exclusionary zoning, that segregate low-income people and people of color into areas that have suffered from decades of disinvestment. These segregated areas are often located closer to industrial districts and are therefore more likely to be deprived of green spaces, healthy homes, and clean drinking water. None of this is news. But, because of worsening residential segregation, the increasingly harmful effects of climate change and extreme weather events are exacerbating these conditions in low-income communities and communities of color. Today, formerly redlined communities suffer from hotter temperatures, and their homes are 25 percent more likely to experience damage due to flooding compared to communities that were not redlined. In some cases, whether due to repeated flooding or because they are located at higher elevations, low-income communities of color, such as in Puerto Rico and Florida, are facing displacement, known as climate gentrification. The real-life examples are far too plenty. Take for example, St. James Parish, Louisiana--a community that is often referred to as ``Cancer Alley.'' I traveled there in 2001 to bring international attention to corporate pollution and the human costs of that pollution on communities of color. St. James Parish has a long history of inequality. The parish is located along the lower Mississippi River where enslaved Africans were forced to labor. Today, it serves as an industrial hub, with nearly 150 oil refineries, plastics plants, and chemical facilities. Not only have these facilities polluted the surrounding water and air, but they have also subjected the mostly African American residents of St. James Parish to cancer, respiratory diseases, and other health problems. In 2005, we saw how Hurricane Katrina impacted people of color in New Orleans. Lives were taken, whole communities were absolutely ravaged, and homes were destroyed. Even after seeing that level of destruction, not enough action has been taken to make sure that homes are resilient and safe from extreme weather events, especially those located in the hardest hit communities. And just last year, in the middle of the pandemic, Georgia and Tennessee experienced deadly tornados that damaged and demolished more than 2,000 homes. In the wake of California's 2018 wildfires--the deadliest in the state's history--82 percent of homes that were built to pre-2008 standards were damaged. The need to ensure our homes and communities are sited and built more equitably and resiliently is more critical than ever before. And so, I want to make it clear that America's housing infrastructure is vulnerable to the growing costs of climate change and weather disasters, which will only accelerate the need for maintenance and repair, or it will make our housing infrastructure uninhabitable. Between 2016 and 2020, these disasters have cost nearly $616 billion in damages and have displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes. We cannot keep asking people to live like this. We must act now. As Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, I recently introduced my historic Housing Is Infrastructure Act of 2021, which provides over $600 billion to increase our nation's green, inclusive, affordable housing infrastructure. I'm fighting for the type of investments that will bring our housing stock into the 21st century and beyond, including working to address environmental racism and the climate emergency, strengthening our nation's commitment to fair housing, and recognizing that housing IS infrastructure.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 486, I call up the bill (H.R. 1443) to amend the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require the collection of small business loan data related to LGBTQ- owned businesses, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on S.J. Res. 15 and to insert extraneous material thereon.