Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, introduced landmark legislation that would provide significant resources to end homelessness in America. The measure is a bold effort to declare what is really needed to address this crisis. The legislation provides $13.27 billion in new funding over five years to several programs and initiatives that will help the nearly 600,000 Americans who are currently homeless -- over 170,000 of whom are unshe... Read more

At today’s Financial Services Committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) lauded the efforts of U.S. Treasury officials and Democratic congressional leaders on the recent ratification of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota reform package, after a 5-year delay due to Republican obstruction. Waters delivered these remarks during today’s hearing on “The State of the International Financial System.” Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Se... Read more

In a powerful article today, the American Banker took House Financial Services Committee Republicans to task over their shameful questioning of CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Highlights from the article are below: “But if the committee meant to conduct true oversight of an agency so many Republicans clearly detest, it failed miserably.” “Time and again, lawmakers effectively stepped on their own lines, asking Cordray important questions and never bothering to let him respond. They allowed theatr... Read more

This week, Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, and Carolyn Maloney, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, led 47 colleagues in urging additional funding for the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) for fiscal year 2017. In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, the Members requested $1.78 billion for the SEC next year, which would be an 11 percent increase from its current amount. Tha... Read more

This week, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee that oversees federal housing programs, urged her colleagues to meet the housing needs of the country’s most vulnerable populations during the federal appropriations process for fiscal 2017. She proposed funding increases for a variety of federal housing programs, notably the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Grants (McKinney Vento), in fo... Read more

In opening remarks during today’s full Committee hearing with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, praised the agency’s work to diligently protect consumers and ensure fairness in the financial system, even in the face of Republican efforts to undermine, eliminate and render the agency ineffective. Waters noted in her remarks the agency’s tremendous track record, delivering $11.2 bil... Read more

Leading Democrats today requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) update an April 2013 study on diversity in the financial services industry and agencies. In a letter to GAO, House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Al Green (D-TX) expressed their concern that the financial services industry has bee... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement in response to the Committee Chairman’s dangerous plan to roll back the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: “This is just another attempt by the majority to gut administration policies that have helped millions of Americans. The Dodd-Frank law was enacted on the heels of the worst financial crisis our generation has seen. In the five-plus years since, our fin... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, responded to two separate reports released today from the Government Accountability Office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency on flood insurance affordability and options for providing assistance to policyholders. Waters requested the GAO report in 2014 after FEMA failed to complete a congressionally-mandated affordability study. As a result, when FEMA increased premiums pursuant to the 2012 Bi... Read more

In opening remarks during a Financial Services Committee markup today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Committee’s Ranking Member, both scolded Committee Republicans on their attempts to once again roll back investor protections and also called for the Committee to focus on addressing poverty and homelessness in the United States. Waters noted that while some of the measures under consideration today were brought forward in good faith, concerns remain that Committee Republicans’ ultimate... Read more

Leading Democratic lawmakers today urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to speed up its review of a proposal that would require companies to provide more specific details about the diversity of their corporate boards. The proposal, which nine public pension fund administrators submitted to the SEC almost a year ago, encourages the agency to require companies to disclose board nominees’ gender, racial, and ethnic diversity. In a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White, the lawmakers pressed the... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Julián Castro, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), urging the Department to seriously reconsider the punitive approach outlined in its proposal to ban smoking in all public housing developments across the country. Ranking Member Waters’ letter follows the Department’s solicitation of comments from the public regarding its proposed plan to institute a... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today announced that the State of California has been awarded $213.5 million under the Hardest Hit Fund, a federal program that provides targeted aid to mortgage borrowers in order to prevent avoidable foreclosures. Through her leadership role in the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Waters led the effort to secure these funds, which were provided under the government funding bill signed into law in Dece... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), urging him to provide Congress a robust affordability framework in a timely manner so that proposals can be considered ahead of the 2017 reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Ranking Member Waters’ letter comes as the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently completed its affordability s... Read more

In opening remarks during a Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee hearing, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, associated the hazards of previously unregulated financial products, such as payday lending, to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is preparing regulations for payday lenders, Waters underscored the important role that financial products play in the life of everyday consum... Read more

In opening remarks during today’s semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins hearing with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, commended the progress made under the leadership of the Federal Reserve, Democrats in Congress, and the Obama administration, but noted that “significant work remains” to elevate the needs of the most vulnerable populations. In her remarks, Waters also raised concerns with the Federal Reserve'... 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. 766, the so-called “Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015”, a dangerous measure that would severely limit the Justice Department’s ability to investigate and prosecute bank fraud. In her remarks, Waters underscored that this measure would eliminate core provisions of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enfo... Read more

Delivering remarks on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 1675 today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of Committee on Financial Services, led Democrats in denouncing the inaptly-named “Capital Markets Improvement Act of 2016,” a bill that includes several provisions that instead of improving our capital markets, would actually harm investors, the SEC and small businesses in our country. In her remarks, Ranking Member Waters noted that H.R. 1675 will reduce corporate transpar... Read more

During floor consideration of H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of Financial Services Committee, urged support of the bill, which seeks to enact several incremental changes across a number of federal housing programs that will allow affordable housing providers to better serve low-income families in need of housing assistance. H.R. 3700 includes text of Legislation introduced earlier this year by Ranking Membe... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, rebuked Committee Republicans for putting forth budget views that ignore the significant progress that has been made since the 2008 crisis. Waters highlighted that the Republican budget failed to provide real solutions that will address the problems of the racial wealth gap, homelessness, consumer protection, investor protection and a stable financial system. She released the following statement, which ... Read more

At today’s Financial Services Committee hearing entitled, “How to Create a More Robust and Private Flood Insurance Marketplace,” Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, discussed private sector involvement in the flood insurance market. Ranking Member Waters was encouraged by the discussion to improve the Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act, H.R. 2901, but underscored some concerns she has, while advocating for a bipartisan bill ... Read more

Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), and Michael Capuano (D-MA) are calling for a joint Department of Justice (DOJ) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) investigation in response to the Seattle Times and Buzzfeed News’ investigative series concerning allegations of discriminatory lending and collection practices by Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage, and 21st Mortgage. T... Read more

In response to a Democratic staff report highlighting shortcomings in personnel diversity policies and practices at seven major financial regulators, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, along with senior members of the panel and members of the Tri-Caucus, released the agencies’ responses to the report’s recommendations for enhancing diversity in the workplace and improving compliance with diversity statutes, particularly section 1116 of the ... Read more

Following the vote by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to raise the federal funds rate target by 25 basis points, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, cautioned policymakers to carefully consider the adverse impact that further rate increases would entail for low income Americans and minority communities. Ranking Member Waters released the following statement: “Today’s decision by the Federal Open Market Committee to increase rates re... Read more

In response to recent violent attacks in San Bernardino, CA and abroad, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, has re-introduced legislation to heighten accountability on financial institutions to improve anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism safeguards. By holding bank executives personally liable and increasing penalties for willful and negligent violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, the measure would encourage banks to take appropriate s... Read more