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

Today, this Committee will mark up six bills. As Chairwoman of this Committee, I am very pleased to advance several strong legislative solutions that have been introduced by Committee Democrats. 

At this markup the Committee will consider a number of bills, continuing with the Committee’s ongoing work to advance racial and gender equity and provide fairness for LGBTQ+ persons, including:  

• The Fair Lending for All Act (H.R. 166), a groundbreaking bill by Representative Green that will help combat discrimination in the consumer financial marketplace, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This would be done through updates to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and through the creation of a CFPB Office of Fair Lending Testing that would incorporate techniques used successfully by researchers to better identify and address discrimination in financial services.  
  
• We will also consider the LGBTQ Business Equal Credit Enforcement and Investment Act (H.R. 1443), a bill by Representative Torres, that would clarify and update Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank to ensure that lending data with respect to LGBTQ-owned businesses are collected, along with small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses. Transparency is key to cracking down on discrimination in the financial marketplace. 
  
• Today we will also mark up the Improving Language Access in Mortgage Servicing Act (H.R. 3009), a bill by Representative Sylvia Garcia. This bill would help close information gaps and prevent foreclosures by ensuring that people with limited English proficiency have access to documents and services in their preferred language. 
  

At this markup we will also consider a number of bills to improve and enhance corporate disclosures and provide investors with material information, including: 

• The Greater Accountability in Pay Act (H.R. 1188), a bill by Representative Velázquez which would enhance accountability for corporations with regard to pay disparities by requiring certain public companies to publicly report information on executive and employee pay raises, 
  
• The Climate Risk Disclosure Act (H.R. 2570), a bill by Representative Casten which would require public companies to disclose the risks they face due to climate change, and; 
  
• The Disclosure of Tax Havens and Offshoring Act (H.R. 3007), a bill by Representative Axne which would require public companies to disclose the amounts they have paid in state, federal and foreign taxes, and their profits before taxes, to provide investors information related to the tax liability of public companies and whether those companies are supporting the U.S. economy.  
  

So, I would like to thank the Members for their work on these important bills and look forward to passing them through the Committee.

###