Maxine Waters

Ms. WATERS

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

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I am prepared to close.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Earlier this year when the Ex-Im reauthorization was still in committee, we entered into good-faith negotiations with Ranking Member McHenry. Unfortunately, the China state-owned enterprise provision insisted on by the ranking member came up short and prevented us from reaching broad bipartisan support for the bill. In fact, his China provision was roundly rejected in seven different votes in committee. This provision was voted down during markup because my colleagues realized that it would do more to harm U.S. exporters and U.S. jobs than help to counter against the very real problems faced by U.S. exporters competing with China. There are a number of other provisions in Mr. McHenry's bill that are unnecessary, even burdensome, and aimed at diminishing the bank's ability to function. In fact, in many ways, rather than seeking to strengthen and improve the flexibility of the bank to meet the challenges faced by U.S. industry today, the provisions in this bill put forward by the ranking member consistently sought to further constrain the bank with unnecessary and, in many cases, new limits and restrictions. What the Republicans don't say is that a bipartisan bill in the Senate was introduced that had none of Mr. McHenry's problematic provisions. Then, last week, the President similarly said that he also supported a 10-year clean reauthorization, which is odd since the Republicans claimed he supported Mr. McHenry's hurdles for the Ex-Im Bank. I continue to believe that this provision will hamper Ex-Im's ability to support U.S. exporters and American jobs. Let me just wrap this up by saying that this is a significant bill that we have before this House. This is a bill that will correct the harm that has been done to our export agency. This is a bill that will create more jobs. This is a bill that has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, GE, Boeing, the AFL-CIO, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the Business Roundtable, and North America's Building Trades Unions. So, here we have a bill where we have people who oppose each other all the time and have come together because they know that it is in the best interests of our country. They know that they have put us in a position--those who have been voting against reauthorization--of being noncompetitive with China and other countries who like to see us in that weakened position. This bill is going to bring us out of that weakened position. This is a bill that improves upon our ability to provide export financing. This is a bill that will create jobs. This is a bill that recognizes that we are not manufacturing at the rate that we should be in this country. And we are not going to be in that position any more. This is a bill that creates jobs in all of our districts. This is a bill that I would ask my Members to please support, and let's keep America moving forward with the export-import bill. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I strongly oppose this amendment. This amendment undermines a carefully crafted compromise on environmental reforms, both in the underlying bill and developed by my good friend from Illinois. It undermines U.S. leadership on growing more jobs in renewable energy, eliminates accountability at Ex-Im, and ends efforts to have Ex-Im consult with local communities on projects it supports. I urge all of my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for offering this important amendment. This amendment builds on the important work of the gentleman from New York on combating illegal opioids in this country. It ensures that those who are sanctioned because of their involvement in the illegal trade of opioids do not get access to Ex-Im assistance, including any sanctions imposed pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. I strongly support the gentleman's amendment to strengthen this bill with respect to preventing the illegal trafficking of synthetic opioids and urge all my colleagues to do so.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, this amendment demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding about what Ex-Im does and whom it benefits. The beneficiaries of Ex-Im's assistance are U.S. exporters and the American workers they employ. It is in America's interest to have a fully functioning Ex-Im because it allows U.S. companies to compete in the global markets. Mr. Davidson's amendment would effectively ban using the Ex-Im Bank in China or Mexico to try to put pressure on Governments of Mexico and China to cooperate with the U.S. to stop the trafficking of synthetic opioids. No one wants to support the trafficking of opioids, but Ex-Im is precisely the wrong agency to use to achieve foreign policy outcomes. If Mexico or China do not cooperate, those countries will not be harmed by this amendment; American companies and workers will be. The Mexican or Chinese Governments will simply buy products from another country that is more than willing to sell them exports. If the goal is to fight the opioid crisis, we need to support programs like Ex-Im that are going to be creating good, well-paying jobs in every district all over the country and support small businesses that are the drivers of community investment and development. And if we really want to put pressure on foreign governments to cooperate with the U.S. in preventing the trafficking of opioids, then we need to bolster our sanctions program, which can deny the bad actor to the largest economy in the world. I understand Mr. Davidson's strongly held desire to do something to address this opioid epidemic and to protect Ex-Im from being improperly accessed by criminal networks trafficking in synthetic opioids. That is why I strongly support Mr. McAdams' and Mr. Rose's amendment to directly cut off Ex-Im financing from those criminal entities that violate sanctions dealing with illegal opioids, including violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Mr. Rose also has legislation pending that would further broaden those who are sanctioned under U.S. law for illegal opioids. Mr. Davidson's concerns are understandable, but in practice, this amendment would limit the ability of Ex-Im to support U.S. jobs and small businesses, further exacerbating the conditions that have contributed to this opioid epidemic. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck)

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, this misguided amendment is going to hurt American workers and American businesspersons. This is not the way to get at the issue the gentleman from Ohio is concerned about. He should be supporting the McAdams-Rose amendment if he wants to do that. I urge all my colleagues to vote against this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman McGovern for yielding. I rise in support of H. Res. 660 and the process that is set forth within it by which the impeachment inquiry will continue to be conducted. To be clear, contrary to what these desperate Republicans have claimed, the Constitution imposes no requirement that a procedural resolution, such as H. Res. 660, should be voted on by the House. Claiming otherwise is but a fabrication meant to distract from the mountain of growing evidence that demonstrates this President abused his power for personal benefit. However, while not necessary, this resolution provides for impartial procedures similar to those used during the past impeachment proceedings. Because Republicans requested a formal procedural vote, I expect nothing less than their full support for H. Res. 660. Anything less would be shameful. As chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, we have been conducting credible investigations into the conduct of this administration. And this work----

Ms. WATERS.--will continue in the manner outlined by H. Res. 660. I look forward to Democrats and Republicans alike----

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2513 and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Ms. WATERS. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 2513, the Corporate Transparency Act of 2019, a bill introduced by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York. H.R. 2513 closes significant loopholes in the law that are commonly abused by bad actors and will make it harder for terrorists, traffickers, corrupt officials, and other criminals to hide, launder, move, and use their money. Today, anyone can create a company without providing any information about the company's actual owners. This ability to remain anonymous gives criminals and terrorists unimpeded, hidden access to our banking and commercial systems. It also makes it more difficult for law enforcement and even our banks, which have a duty to know their customers and evaluate risk, to detect illicit activity. For example, unbeknownst to authorities for years, the skyscraper at 650 Fifth Avenue in New York City was owned by Iranian-controlled entities through shell companies. The Corporate Transparency Act closes these loopholes by requiring firms which do not already report ownership, for example through public SEC filings, to share this information with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN. This beneficial ownership database created by the bill will be accessible only by FinCEN-approved law enforcement agencies and by financial institutions, with customer consent, to fulfill requirements to identify their beneficial owners. Unapproved sharing of this information would be subject to criminal penalties, as would lying on or intentional omission of beneficial ownership information. For most firms, which have only one or two owners, this process would require only a few lines of data. But for law enforcement agencies, the additional information will have great benefit, as their investigations will no longer be stymied by anonymous shell companies. The bill has also been broadened to include the entirety of H.R. 2514, the Coordinating Oversight, Upgrading and Innovating Technology, and Examiner Reform Act of 2019, the COUNTER Act, a bill introduced by Representative Emanuel Cleaver. The COUNTER Act closes loopholes in the Bank Secrecy Act, the key law aimed at countering money laundering, terrorist financing, and other criminal uses of the banking system. For example, the bill requires the identification of owners behind high-risk commercial real estate transactions and transactions involving arts and antiquities, which are often used by criminals to launder money. The COUNTER Act examines Chinese and Russian money laundering, an issue that is seen in opioid and methamphetamine production, as well as human and wildlife trafficking. The bill also creates a national strategy to fight trade-based money laundering, which is considered the most pernicious but hard-to-detect form of money laundering. Mrs. Maloney and Mr. Cleaver's bill also works to lower the compliance burden on financial institutions, most of which are community banks, by establishing several tools to allow for more targeted sharing of BSA-AML-related information. The bill makes modest increases to the currency transaction reporting limit and studies ways to reduce the costs associated with researching and writing suspicious activity reports. The bill also creates a new privacy and civil liberties officer, as well as an innovation officer in each of the Federal financial regulators. Importantly, the bill imposes new penalties on financial institutions and personnel that violate the law and creates a whistleblower program to encourage and protect those who identify such bad acts. H.R. 2513, as amended, has the strong support of financial institutions. It is also supported by NGOs like the AFL-CIO, Global Witness, Oxfam America, Friends of the Earth U.S., Jubilee USA Network, and the Small Business Majority, all of which are members of the transparency-focused FACT Coalition. It is widely supported by law enforcement organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police, the National District Attorneys Association, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. In addition, this legislation is supported by the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I commend Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Cleaver for their very hard work on the legislation, as well as their collaboration to put together a comprehensive bill to reform how this country fights against illicit finance. I urge passage of H.R. 2513, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the sponsor of the bill and chair of the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster), who is the chair on the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), who is the sponsor of the COUNTER Act which is part of this bill. He is also the chair of the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy.

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

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

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, the United States is vulnerable. According to a 2017 report by the Government Accountability Office, ``GAO was unable to identify ownership information for about one-third of GSA's 1,406 high- security leases as of March 2016 because ownership information was not readily available for all buildings.'' This finding was a leading factor in Congress voting to adopt a provision in the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act for the Department of Defense to collect beneficial ownership information for all high-security office space it leases. As a matter of fact, there is more information required to obtain a library card. According to a 2019 Global Financial Integrity analysis, ``The Library Card Project: The Ease of Forming Anonymous Companies in the United States,'' in all 50 States and the District of Columbia, ``more personal information is needed to obtain a library card than to establish a legal entity that can be used to facilitate tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, and corruption.'' The British model: The United Kingdom has a beneficial ownership directory, and an analysis found that the average number of owners per business in the U.K. is 1.13. Eighty-eight percent had two or fewer owners. The most common number of owners is one. More than 99 percent of businesses listed less than six owners. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, approximately 78 percent of all businesses in the U.S. are nonemployer firms, meaning there is only one person in the enterprise. This suggests that the experience in the U.S. would be similar to that in the U.K. Mr. Chair, I would like to share with you that this legislation has tremendous support, for example, from Main Street Alliance, a network of over 30,000 small businesses; American Bankers Association; Bank Policy Institute; Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America; National Foreign Trade Council; Consumer Bankers Association; Financial Services Forum; Bankers Association for Finance and Trade; American Land Title Association; National Association of Realtors; One; FACT Coalition, a collection of 100-plus NGOs, including AFL-CIO, Global Witness, Oxfam America, Friends of the Earth U.S., Jubilee USA Network, Public Citizen, and Small Business Majority. We could go on and on and on, but I think it is important to know that members of the Financial Services Committee, Representatives Maloney, Luetkemeyer, and Cleaver, have worked in good faith, along with the Department of the Treasury, nonprofit groups, and the financial services sector, to find consensus to close a massive loophole in our anti-money laundering framework. The resulting pieces of legislation to modernize the anti-money laundering processes and to create a secure financial ownership registry of legal entities held at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the Department of the Treasury represent the best path forward to provide law enforcement with needed information to pursue money criminals looking to exploit our financial system. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney) sponsor of the legislation, H.R. 2513.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire as to how much time I have left.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I would like to thank Representatives Maloney and Cleaver for their work on these reforms. I would like to just add that H.R. 2513 is an important, commonsense measure that stops criminals from being able to hide behind anonymous shell companies. It closes loopholes in the Bank Secrecy Act, increases penalties for those who break the law, and helps provide financial institutions with new tools to more easily and accurately fulfill their obligations under the law. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition, although I do not oppose the amendment.