Today, at a full Committee markup, the House Financial Services Committee adopted Budget Views and Estimates for Fiscal Year 2020. The Committee’s budget views were adopted along party lines by a vote of 33-24. During the markup, Democrats accepted four out of seven amendments offered by Republicans.

See below for the opening statement given by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.

As Prepared for Delivery

Today, the Committee convenes to mark up its views and estimates for the fiscal year 2020 budget.

As I have said before, under my leadership, this Committee will have a new agenda, focused on fairness and policies to benefit consumers, investors, small businesses and our economy.

This Committee will prioritize protecting consumers from harmful financial practices, ensuring that there are strong safeguards in place to prevent a financial crisis, expanding and supporting affordable housing and tackling the homelessness crisis, encouraging responsible innovation in financial technology, promoting diversity and inclusion in the financial services sector, and making sure that hardworking Americans and small businesses have fair access to the financial system and opportunities to thrive.

By contrast, this President has put forth an agenda that is not only harmful to consumers, investors and small businesses, but also to our whole economy.

The President’s demand for a border wall resulted in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history-- harming federal employees, contractors, small businesses and the economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the economy permanently lost $3 billion because of a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

Trump’s tax scam piled $1.8 trillion onto the national debt, and provided huge giveaways to millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations, while leaving future generations to foot the bill.

This Committee is concerned that Trump’s appointees across the government have undermined important protections put in place to protect workers, the environment, the health care system, and in our Committee, our consumers and our economy. At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Trump’s appointees have worked to tear down the agency from the inside, preventing the agency from carrying out its mission of protecting consumers from harmful financial products and practices.

With regard to the budget, the Trump Administration has also consistently put forth budget proposals that make massive cuts to programs that protect the nation’s most vulnerable families.

This Committee will fight to ensure robust funding for critical programs under our jurisdiction and the agencies that administer them. We will also advance legislation to address pressing issues such as homelessness, and to reverse the administration’s harmful actions to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and diminish fair housing protections.

It is a new day on this Committee, and we are starting by putting hardworking Americans, consumers and investors first.

I now recognize the Ranking Member, Congressman McHenry, for five minutes for an opening statement.

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