Waters Strongly Opposes Republican Efforts to Dismantle Financial Regulation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, spoke strongly against two bills pushed by Republicans to effectively roll back postcrisis financial regulation. Ranking Member Waters acknowledged the bills on the House floor today as another attempt by the majority to gut policies that have helped millions of Americans.

H.R. 78, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulatory Accountability Act

Ranking Member Waters criticized and offered an amendment to H.R. 78, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulatory Accountability Act, a bill that protects special interests on Wall Street and undermines investor protections for hardworking Americans and their families.

“Republicans have crafted H.R. 78 to tie the hands of the SEC and prevent it from issuing new rules to address market failures and protect investors,” said Ranking Member Waters. “At the same time, the bill would enable the Trump Administration to easily repeal important Dodd-Frank rules by tilting the SEC’s decisions towards what is best for industry, and worse, what enriches the President-elect and his cronies… As President-elect Trump takes office next week beginning what is the most conflicted Administration in U.S. history, I urge my colleagues to join me, investor and consumer advocates, public pension plans, civil rights groups, labor unions and supporters of financial reform in opposing H.R. 78 to ensure that the actions of Trump’s SEC are in the interest of Americans’ economic stability, and not in Russia’s or Wall Street’s interests.”

In an effort to protect the American financial system and hold the incoming Trump Administration accountable, Ranking Member Waters offered an amendment to H.R. 78.

“My amendment says enough is enough, and that we need to ensure that the efforts of Donald Trump and his appointees to enrich themselves, and their cronies, will not happen at the regulator charged with policing the U.S. financial and capital markets,” said Ranking Member Waters. “Specifically, the amendment requires the SEC to identify, analyze and address potential conflicts of interest in proposed rules. It will do so by looking at how former employers of Commission officials as well as the current employers of departed officials would directly and indirectly benefit from the proposed rules and take action to ensure that such rules are fair for all.”

H.R. 238, the Commodity End-User Relief Act

Ranking Member Waters also spoke today in opposition to H.R. 238, the Commodity End-User Relief Act, an effort to hamstring the ability of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency charged with fostering open, transparent, competitive, and financially sound markets. Waters blasted the legislation as a multifaceted Republican attempt to roll back Wall Street Reform by creating loopholes for megabanks, imposing heavy administrative burdens on the CFTC, and exposing the agency to endless litigation.

“Republicans continue to seek to undermine [the CFTC’s] regulatory authority, impose new procedural hurdles, and ultimately thwart its ability to protect the American people,” said Ranking Member Waters. “H.R. 238 would impose onerous burdens and introduce new litigation risks by requiring the CFTC to conduct a cost-benefit analysis slanted towards industry— a tactic that used by opponents of financial reform to prevent, delay, weaken, and now under a Trump Administration, repeal any rules implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.”


To view Ranking Member Waters’ full statement on H.R. 238, click here.

To view Ranking Member Waters’ full opening statement on H.R. 78, click here.
To view Ranking Member Waters’ full amendment statement on H.R. 78, click here.
To view Ranking Member Waters’ full closing statement on H.R. 78, click here.

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