Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following opening statement at a Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy hearing entitled, “A Holistic Review of Regulators: Regulatory Overreach and Economic Consequences.”

Here we go again. Instead of marking up sensible bills that have bipartisan support to strengthen the banking system following the 3 major bank failures earlier this year, Republicans are holding another hearing to attack the Fed, FDIC, and OCC for strengthening our banking system. 

The hearing title suggests this is a “holistic review,” but rather than looking at the whole picture, Republicans are focusing exclusively on how proposed changes from regulators will impact Wall Street, not consumers who pay when large banks fail. Millions of people lost their homes, jobs, and savings in 2008. Hundreds of start-ups almost got wiped out when SVB failed. 

Regulators should strengthen, not weaken, these critical banking rules to protect consumers from future bank failures. I yield back.

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