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Waters at Hearing on Overhauling Credit Reporting System: We Need Big, Bold Legislative Solutions
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave the following statement at a full Committee hybrid hearing entitled, “A Biased, Broken System: Examining Proposals to Overhaul Credit Reporting to Achieve Equity.”
As the title of this hearing indicates, our current credit reporting system is broken.
Good credit is a gateway to wealth. Yet, for far too long, our credit reporting system has kept people of color and low-income persons from access to capital to start a small business; access to mortgage loans to become homeowners; and access to credit to meet financial emergencies.
That’s why even before the pandemic, the House passed two bills out of this Committee — the Comprehensive CREDIT Act and the Protecting Your Credit Score Act — that provide long overdue reforms to our credit reporting system. We are considering those bills again with this hearing.
But allow me to also explain how the pandemic has exposed just how broken our credit reporting system is.
Last week, I received a letter from a gentleman in Ohio. In this letter, he explained how he had lost his job because of the pandemic. Without his salary, and with no help from any of his creditors, he couldn’t afford to cover all of his bills. Though he had never before missed a credit card payment, his credit score has suffered so badly, he wrote, and I quote, “I couldn’t get credit now if I paid someone to give me credit” unquote. He closed his letter by asking what this Committee was doing to protect consumers like him.
As Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, it is indeed a priority of mine to protect consumers like him, who are unfairly penalized in their credit reports, and it is precisely why we're holding this hearing today — to ensure greater transparency, accountability, and protections for consumers across the country…
Click here to read her opening statement.
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Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion - The Legacy of George Floyd: An Examination of Financial Services Industry Commitments to Economic and Racial Justice
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations - America on “FIRE”: Will the Crypto Frenzy Lead to Financial Independence and Early Retirement or Financial Ruin?
Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions -Addressing Climate as a Systemic Risk: The Need to Build Resilience within Our Banking and Financial System
Tweets of the Week
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Member Spotlight
| Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) |
Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) serves as the vice chair of the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy. He also serves on the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets and the Task Force on Financial Technology. This week, the Committee on Financial Services introduced a discussion bill led by Representative Gottheimer entitled Protecting Your Credit Score Act, which would require the three largest CRAs, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, to establish a single online consumer portal landing page that gives consumers free and unlimited access to their consumer reports and credit scores.
Weekend Reads
July Committee Calendar
- July 14 at 12:00 PM ET: The full Committee will convene for a virtual hearing entitled, “Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy.”
- July 15 at 12:00 PM ET: The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will convene for a virtual hearing entitled, “CDBG Disaster Recovery: States, Cities, and Denials of Funding.”
- July 16 at 12:00 PM ET: The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence will convene for a virtual hearing entitled, “I Am Who I Say I Am: Verifying Identity while Preserving Privacy in the Digital Age.”
- July 20 at 10:00 AM ET: The full Committee will convene for an in-person hearing entitled, “Building Back A Better, More Equitable Housing Infrastructure for America: Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
- July 21 at 10:00 AM ET: The Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions will convene for an in-person hearing entitled, “Banking the Unbanked: Exploring Private and Public Efforts to Expand Access to the Financial System.”
- July 21 at 2:00 PM ET: The Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets will convene for an in-person hearing entitled, “Bond Rating Agencies: Examining the “Nationally Recognized” Statistical Rating Organizations.”
- July 27 at 10:00 AM ET: The Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy will convene for an in-person hearing entitled, “The Promises and Perils of Central Bank Digital Currencies.”
- July 27 at 2:00 PM ET: The Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance will convene for an in-person hearing entitled, “NAHASDA Reauthorization: Addressing Historic Disinvestment and the Ongoing Plight of the Freedmen in Native American Communities.”
- July 28 at 10:00 AM ET: The full Committee will convene for an in-person markup.
All hearings are livestreamed on https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/live/.
For virtual hearings, all Members and witnesses participate remotely with no in-person hearings participation in the hearing room. In-person will take place in 2128 Rayburn House Office Building.
Committee activities are finalized once an official notice is issued by the House Financial Services Committee. Visit https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/calendar/ for the most up-to-date Committee schedule.
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Waters on Crypto, Financial Independence, and Early Retirement: We Have Begun a Thorough Examination of This Marketplace
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave the following statement at a Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hybrid hearing entitled, “America on “FIRE”: Will the Crypto Frenzy Lead to Financial Independence and Early Retirement or Financial Ruin?”
Thank you very much, Chair Green. Congress and regulators face many challenges as we grapple with how to best regulate cryptocurrencies, including cryptocurrency issuers, exchanges, and investments. This Committee is committed to providing not only more transparency in this minimally regulated industry, but ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place, and so we have begun a thorough examination of this marketplace.
Today, I look forward to hearing from our panel about the risk of fraud and market manipulation that can hurt retail investors and regular consumers. Furthermore, I look forward to learning about the systemic risks presented by hedge funds rushing to invest in highly volatile cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency derivatives.
So, thank you, Mr. Green, for convening this hearing today.
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Chairwoman’s Corner
Waters Calls on Newsom and Garcetti to Continue to Reduce Barriers to COVID-19 Relief
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Governor of California Galvin Newsom and Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti urging them to reduce barriers to assistance to ensure that critical COVID-19 relief reaches Californians who continue to struggle during the pandemic.
“As you know, even before the pandemic, homelessness was at crisis levels in California, with more than 161,000 of our neighbors forced to live on the streets, in cars, and other places not fit for human habitation. At the same time, the lack of affordable housing in the state has left over a million households paying too much of their income on rent. The pandemic has only exacerbated these crises…To ensure renters could remain in their homes and avoid eviction, I was able to secure $25 billion in emergency rental assistance in the December aid package and an additional $21.6 billion in the American Rescue Plan. Both California and the City of Los Angeles are now working to get these funds to families in need, but only a fraction of the money has been provided to landlords. While I appreciate efforts to improve the distribution of emergency rental assistance and ensure renters are receiving sufficient aid, I urge you to continue to reduce barriers to assistance so that families are not cut off from relief provided by Congress.”
See the full text of the letter.
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