As the House and Senate work to reconcile differing versions of legislation to implement an Obama Administration deal with Mexico to develop oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico, three leading House Democratic lawmakers called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to reject House Republican efforts to waive a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires extractive companies listed on U.S. exchanges to disclose the payments they make to gov... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Former Representatives Barney Frank today released the statements in opposition to H.R. 992, the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act. Waters led opposition on the House Floor and expressed her concerns about weakening of Dodd-Frank reforms before regulators have completed them. Waters stated: “The financial crisis of 2008 wreaked untold havoc on the US economy. This disaster, which was intensified by the use of derivatives, set back hard-working Americans for ... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released the following statement regarding her opposition to H.R. 2374, the Retail Investor Protection Act. Waters led opposition on the House Floor and expressed her concerns about how the deceptively-titled legislation would undermine protections for those trying to save for retirement. Waters stated: “This legislation is overly broad and would prevent our regulators from protecting Americans tr... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement in response to actions by U.S. and UK regulators to levy a nearly $1 billion fine against JP Morgan. “Today’s announcement of fines levied against JP Morgan validates Congress’ decision to provide our regulators with broad authority to regulate derivatives trading whenever it affects the US economy, including overseas. These actions, as well as those expected by the CFTC... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, led committee Democrats today in encouraging Financial Services Committee Members to, “read the law,” in hopes to “facilitate a rational discussion based on actual provisions within the law.” During the full committee hearing titled, “Examining How the Dodd-Frank Act Could Result in More Taxpayer-Funded Bailouts,” Waters said, “I have found that not enough attention has been paid to the actual legislative text... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, made the following statement today at a meeting of the Committee held to mark up the following legislation: H.R. 2374, the Retail Investor Protection Act H.R. 1135, the Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act H.R. 1105, the Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act H.R. 1564, the Audit Integrity and Job Protection Act Click here to view the video of Ranking Member Waters opening statement. As delive... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, made the following statement today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ranking Member Waters opposed the passage of H.R. 1256, the Swap Jurisdiction Certainty Act, under closed rule. Ranking Member Waters led the debate noting that H.R. 1256 handcuffs our regulators reach overseas, and instead forces the U.S. taxpayer to rely on foreign regulators to protect them from institutions that bet the h... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following statement at today's full Committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Lew: Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I am very pleased to welcome Secretary Lew to his first appearance before the Financial Services Committee to deliver the annual report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. We are aware of your tremendous responsibility, we are very please... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today made the following statement on the House Floor: I rise to strongly oppose HR 1062. This bill places significant additional requirements for economic analysis by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), effectively bringing any efforts at rulemaking to a standstill. Let’s be clear: the purpose of this legislative effort is to stop implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Prot... Read more

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the “SEC Regulatory Accountability Act” (H.R. 1062), a Republican bill which despite its common-sense title would greatly restrict the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect millions of American investors. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, led debate for the Democrats. She told colleagues that the bill would make it easier for special interests to sue the SEC to block r... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, made the following statement at a meeting of the Committee held today to mark up legislation addressing the nation’s derivatives markets: Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this mark-up this morning on a broad package of bills related to a wide-range of issues facing this Committee. Let me open this mark-up discussion by repeating what I have consistently said: I’m open to pieces of legislation that truly rep... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Chairman of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), seeking to elicit his views on the progress of the “living wills” provision of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The provision requires the nation’s largest bank holding companies and other systemically important financial firms as designated by the FSOC to file Orderly Re... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released the following statement in reaction to the annual report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). Waters praises the FSOC’s work to monitor systemic risk and identify potential vulnerabilities in the financial system. Ranking Member Waters also calls on members of the Council to pay close attention to a series of bills which will soon be considered by the House Financial Services Com... Read more

In her opening statement today at a hearing of the House Committee on Financial Services, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the Committee, contested the notion that regulatory oversight is an impediment to recovery in the housing finance market. The title of the hearing called by the Republican majority is “Building a Sustainable Housing Finance System: Examining Regulatory Impediments to Private Investment Capital”. Waters repeatedly has urged her Republican colleagues to take up t... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, joined by Representative Carolyn Maloney and 51 other Members of Congress, has released a letter to key Members of the House Committee on Appropriations calling for full funding of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the amount requested by the Obama administration for fiscal year 2014. The SEC is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s capital markets are fair, orderly and efficient, and that i... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, has introduced legislation to provide the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with the authority to impose and collect user fees on investment advisors. The Investment Adviser Examination Improvement Act of 2013 (H.R. 1627) would provide the SEC with a dedicated funding source in order to make possible a more robust investment adviser oversight program. Since the financial crisis five years ago, publ... Read more

Ranking Member Waters opening statement at 4-16-2013 Financial Institutions Subcommittee Hearing titled, “Examining Community Bank Regulatory Burdens” I want to thank the witnesses for taking time to come talk to us today. I know it’s still a challenging time for community sized institutions such as yourselves and it can’t be easy to take time away from your businesses. And I want to get you all back home as soon as possible because we really need you to be out there lending in your communities ... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, spoke before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness today. Waters’ 30 minute speech outlines policy areas such as regulatory relief for community banks in which she is optimistic about working with the Republican majority on the Committee. However, she made clear that despite her willingness to consider technical fixes to Dodd Frank, she will strongly oppose efforts to repeal t... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today made the following statement on the House Floor: Thank you Mr. Speaker, and I thank Mr. Van Hollen for yielding me time. Today I rise in strong opposition to the Republican’s Budget, a budget that makes absurd claims to reducing the deficit by repealing crucial government authority to protect our economy—lest we forget that Lehman’s disorderly bankruptcy sparked the worst financial crisis since the Great... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), today released the following statement in response to the news that President Barack Obama will nominate Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was established by the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was drafted and signed into law during the period in which Ms. Waters was Chairwoman of the HFSC Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opport... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released the following statement after the Committee’s first markup. In her statement, she praises the bipartisan tone of the markup but also responds to a claim by the Committee majority made in a press release strong issued last night. I appreciate the bipartisan nature of today’s Financial Services Committee markup in which we formally organized the Committee by adopting rules and appointing Members t... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement today in response to the announcement by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of a rule governing actions by mortgage servicers: The rule is a strong first step towards limiting widespread predatory practices by the mortgage servicing industry, which have led to many American families needlessly losing their homes. It establishes rules that provide lenders with clear guidan... Read more

(January 16, 2013) – A contingent of 12 Members of the House of Representatives today filed an amicus brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Resource Extraction Rule. The rule is based on a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rule is designed to help investors and ensure more stable and growing capital markets through transparency while also combating the d... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, released the following statement today in response to reports that the American International Group Inc. (AIG) is considering joining a lawsuit against the U.S. government claiming that the terms of the bailout were unfair: “It is simply outrageous that the board of the American International Group, Inc. (AIG) would even consider suing the federal government after America’s taxpayers stepped up and bailed th... Read more

Congressman Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released the following statement regarding the announcement yesterday by JPMorgan Chase that it will lose $2 billion due to trading on credit derivatives. This regrettable news from JPMorgan Chase obviously goes counter to the bank’s narrative blaming excessive regulation for the woes of financial institutions. Interestingly, in the Economist’s long attack on the financial reform bill, one of their leading ... Read more