Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave the following statement at a full Committee hybrid markup. 

Good morning. Today, we are here to mark up a series of important measures.  
 
I am very pleased that, following the Committee’s hearing in March on racial justice and racial equity, today the Committee will be considering several bills by Committee Democrats to improve diversity and inclusion and create fairness in our housing system.
 
These bills include: 

• Representative Meeks’ bill, H.R. 1277, the Improving Corporate Governance Through Diversity Act, which would require public companies to report on their board and executive leadership diversity, 
  
  
• Representative Beatty’s bill, H.R. 2123, the Diversity and Inclusion Data Accountability and Transparency Act, which would make reporting of diversity data and policies to the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion by regulated entities mandatory, 
  
  
• Representative Green’s bill, H.R. 2516, the Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Banking Act, which would require federal banking regulators to evaluate bank diversity and inclusion policies and procedures as part of determining their CAMELS rating,
  
  
• Representative Cleaver’s bill, H.R. 2553, the Real Estate Valuation Fairness and Improvement Act, which is aimed at addressing disparate impact in the home appraisal process,
  
  
• And, my bill, H.R. 2543, the Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act, which would direct the Federal Reserve to address the racial employment and wage gaps as part of its mission. 
  

At this markup we will also consider bills to strengthen disclosures by public companies, including Representative Foster’s bill, H.R. 1087, the Shareholder Political Transparency Act, which would require public companies to report on their expenditures for political activities, and Representative Vargas’ bill, H.R. 1187, the ESG Disclosure Simplification Act, which would require public companies to report and define environmental, social and governance metrics.  
 
In the midst of the pandemic crisis, predatory debt collectors have made record profits while continuing with their abusive, harassing tactics while consumers struggle to make ends meet through no fault of their own. At this mark up, we will consider my bill, H.R. 2547, the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act, which includes several measures by Representatives Velázquez, Meeks, Cleaver, Dean, Tlaib, Pressley, and Auchincloss to protect consumers from abuses by debt collectors.  
 
I am also pleased that we will consider resolutions to reestablish the Committee’s Task Forces on Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence.  
 
Finally, we will markup the Committee’s views and estimates on the budget for fiscal year 2022. 
 
I would like to thank the Members for their work on these measures, and look forward to advancing them.

###