Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following statement at today’s full Committee markup.

Thank you, Chairman McHenry, and good morning, all.

 In about a week, the United States could default on its debt for the first time. Let’s be very clear, this is solely because the Republicans have manufactured a crisis and are using the debt limit to extort radical, harmful concessions that will hurt families everywhere.  

As we get closer to the default date, their demands are getting even more extreme, and the threat of a default is becoming even more likely. As a result, our financial markets are responding negatively, with investors demanding a higher premium of 1.4 percent for Treasury bills that mature in June, to take on the potential risk of not being paid on time. If the government defaults and that kind of premium is baked into the price of buying Treasury securities, some experts estimate that could increase the government’s borrowing costs by more than $4 trillion. And that doesn’t even take into account the sweeping consequences of a debt default for consumers, workers, small businesses, and the broader economy. 

The bills that Committee Republicans are marking up today are harmful to consumers, homebuyers, investors, and retirees, and they are strongly opposed by advocates, pension funds, and state regulators. Not to mention, they are all huge giveaways to Wall Street. For example, the “Middle Class Borrower Protection Act” would do the opposite of what the bill title suggests and increase fees on middle class home buyers. H.R. 3063 would put the retirement funds of teachers, health care workers, and other public interest professionals at risk.  

And in case my colleagues on the other side of the aisle forgot, the United States recently experienced the largest bank run in its history, and the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th largest bank failures. Thankfully, our nation’s regulators and the Biden Administration acted quickly and transparently to stop contagion. Regulators also provided the Committee and the public with detailed and in-depth reports that included confidential supervisory information, laying out the causes of these failures, including a GAO report, a request from Chair McHenry and I. As a result, we know a lot about the causes of the crisis, and how to reform the system. 

However, instead of addressing the root causes, Republicans are pushing for deregulation and seeking to make it harder for regulators to respond to situations like this in the future by requiring more paperwork and other burdensome requirements.  

Committee Democrats are not blind to the causes of the failures, and are prepared to offer solutions to hold bank executives accountable for their mismanagement, reverse Trump-era deregulation, and enhance supervision of the large banks to better protect our banking system.  

Let me just say that Mr. McHenry is correct about our attempts to work together. As a matter of fact, we agreed that there were three important issues that we were going to work hard together on. I believe that was digital [assets], privacy, and capital formation. Those are important issues, and so, what we’re dealing with today basically is capital formation. And I think we want to do it in a way that would protect consumers. At the same time, find ways by which to provide capital for our small businesses and others who do good work for the public, if they have the opportunity to do so. So, I think it’s important for us to work on these issues, I think it’s important for us to respect each other as we deal with the complications of how to manage, and whether or not we are giving equal opportunity to get the work done. I think we can do that. Sometimes we have to talk about it a little bit more, but I am certainly willing to work with him, because it’s easier when you can work together than when you have to be at each other’s throats all the time.

With that, let’s get down with our business for today, and you’ll see that we don’t agree on the issues, but that does not mean that we can’t agree on process.

Thank you, and I yield back.