On a cold rainy day last fall, dozens of people gathered in a plaza across the street from New Jersey's state Capitol. They held press conferences and slept overnight in lawn chairs. Everyone had come to make the same point: They'd made it through Superstorm Sandy, which hit the shores of New Jersey and New York in October 2012. But three years later, many hadn't made it home. Doug Quinn, a 51-year-old from Toms River, N.J., had been in the plaza for two days. "I should be at home in my house an... Read more

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, along with House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Monetary Policy & Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Gwen Moore, and Rep. Denny Heck, today sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby urging action on the confirmation of J. Mark McWatters to a four-year term serving on the Board of the Export-Import Bank. The letter calls on Chairman Shelby to allow the Senate Banking Committee to vote on Mr. McWatters’s confi... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced landmark legislation to overhaul the American credit reporting system so that it is fairer, more accurate, and less confusing for consumers. Consumer reporting agencies compile and maintain files for about 200 million adults. These reports play an important role in Americans’ lives as most creditors use them to make decisions about whether to extend credit and on what terms. These repo... Read more

Congresswoman Member Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, spoke on the House floor today about the state of homelessness in our country and sent a letter to Congressional Appropriators urging an extension of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). In her letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Waters requested that the sunset date for USICH -- which is scheduled for Oct. 1, 2017 – be repea... Read more

Congresswoman Member Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, submitted the following statement for the record at a Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee hearing titled “Interest on Reserves and the Fed’s Balance Sheet”: Thank you Chairman Huizenga and Ranking Member Moore for organizing today’s hearing. As we look at the Fed’s implementation of monetary policy in the post-crisis environment I think it’s important to look at the circumstances that have brought us... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on an announcement from Google that it will ban ads for short-term loans with high interest rates: “Today, Google announced an initiative to protect consumers from predatory payday lending by banning ads for short-term loans with high rates. After studying the data, Google found that some credit products trap consumers in a never-ending cycle of debt. According to G... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, introduced legislation with 14 other California Democrats representing the County of Los Angeles to address concerns with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) initiative to consolidate its multifamily offices, known as the “Multifamily Transformation.” The initiative is currently being implemented in certain regions across the country and the Los Angeles field office will be affec... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on the Obama Administration’s new rules and proposals to fight money laundering: “I welcome the Administration’s announcement today of a major package of initiatives designed to help fight financial crime, protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system, and give law enforcement more effective tools to trace the activities of terrorist groups and help stop the fl... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement applauding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) proposed rule on forced arbitration: “Everyday contracts, such as credit card agreements and checking accounts, should not use fine print to automatically deny consumers the right to access the civil justice system when they have been harmed by financial corporations. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bure... Read more

WASHINGTON -- Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement today regarding an announcement from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that it will allocate $174 million to states from the National Housing Trust Fund: “There is a serious lack of affordable housing units in this country, causing undue hardships for many Americans who have trouble paying their rent. We created the National Housing Trus... Read more

In remarks on the House floor today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, took a strong stand against H.J. Res. 88, a Republican measure that seeks to dismantle the Labor Department’s recently finalized rule governing investment advice for retirement accounts. In her remarks, Ranking Member Waters noted that resolution would invalidate a carefully crafted rule that would close loopholes and gaps in the law and require all advisers to put thei... Read more

During floor consideration of H.R. 4498, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, said the measure could lead to unnecessary and harmful loopholes in our securities laws.‎ The measure would roll back a requirement enacted under the JOBS Act for companies selling private offerings to first verify that a purchaser is an accredited investor during sales events sponsored by groups such as colleges, non-profits, trade associations or angel investor gr... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, today introduced legislation that would remove unfair barriers to obtaining federal housing assistance, such as Public Housing and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. The proposal – unveiled during National Fair Housing Month and National Reentry Week – would reform eviction and screening policies so that individuals with criminal backgrounds have a second chance and fair shot at housing assistan... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, applauded an announcement today from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) that it will award $100,000 to the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) through DOJ’s Juvenile Reentry Assistance Program (JRAP). HACLA has partnered with Public Counsel, a non-profit law firm in Los Angeles County and the largest in the country, to administer th... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today announced that the State of California has been awarded $169.8 million through a competitive grant under the Hardest Hit Fund, a federal program that provides targeted aid to mortgage borrowers to prevent avoidable foreclosures. In February, the Treasury Department allocated $213.5 million to California under a separate award from the Hardest Hit Fund distributed on a formula basis. The funding an... Read more

Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) responded to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) rate-setting methods under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Agency’s progress in ensuring that full-risk rates accurately reflect flood risk. Waters requested the report in 2014 when Congress was working to address the unintended consequences of premium increases under the 2012 Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform ... Read more

During floor consideration of H.R. 3340, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, urged rejection of the bill, which would undermine the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the Office of Financial Research (OFR) by subjecting their funding to Congressional appropriations and interfering with their research.‎ The OFR and the FSOC are funded by fees on the largest financial institutions, similar to how the banking regulators set and fu... Read more

In remarks on the House floor today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, led Democrats in opposition to H.R. 3791, which would increase by fivefold the asset threshold under the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement, encouraging more consolidation of small community banks and endangering their safety and soundness. In her remarks, Waters noted that this bill reneges on a bipartisan compromise enacted just over a year ago that raised th... Read more

In 1975, Gerald Ford was president, a first-class stamp cost 10 cents, and 401(k) plans did not exist. Back then, millions of Americans earned a traditional pension after working for decades for one company or industry. This pension provided workers with a guaranteed income stream for the rest of their lives and helped ensure they could enjoy a secure and dignified retirement. For the vast majority of Americans, that's not how it works anymore. We now live in a "do it yourself" retirement world.... Read more

Today, Democrats on the Financial Services Committee voted against Republican attempts to weaken consumer protection and Wall Street reform in effort to produce illusory budget savings as part of the Majority’s failed budget process. The party-line votes were as follows: H.R. 1486, the Taking Account of Bureaucrats’ Spending Act (33-20): The bill would repeal the current independent funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and instead subject the Bureau to the annual Congressio... Read more

At a Financial Services Committee markup of two bills designed to undercut the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, denounced the measures as efforts to disarm our financial regulators and weaken reforms established after the 2008 crisis. Waters criticized both measures as “budget gimmicks to generate illusory savings.” For example, H.R. 1486 would only generate savings if Congr... Read more

Three top Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a nonprofit group for using their quotes out of context to criticize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Reps. Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, and Al Green wrote in a letter to the FTC today that Internet and TV ads from Protect America's Consumers may have violated federal regulations that ban distorting opinions to make it seem like they were endorsing the group. Th... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on the Labor Department’s final rule on investment advice for retirement assets that was released today: “I am pleased that after five years of thoughtful consideration, thousands of letters, and over one hundred meetings the Labor Department has released a final rule to better protect Americans from conflicted retirement advice. I commend Secretary Perez for his exemplary... Read more

The week before last, I attended a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. I was there with a group of public-interest advocates in a show of support for the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its director, Richard Cordray, who endured harsh grilling from lawmakers on the panel. Since the CFPB opened its doors, it has directed some of the nation's largest banks to stop charging cardholders for unwanted add-on products; protected military families agains... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee led 32 colleagues in a letter calling on Congress to forgive $23 billion in debt at the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) during the fiscal year 2017 appropriations process. “The NFIP’s current debt is the direct result of Congressional design and it is time that Congress takes responsibility for it,” the Members wrote. The NFIP is funded by insurance premiums and fees paid by policyholders.... Read more