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Committee Holds Hybrid Hearing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
On Thursday, the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets held a hybrid hearing entitled, “Capital Markets and Emergency Lending in the COVID-19 Era,” with testimony from chair, Jay Clayton, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Watch the full hearing here.
Waters, Clay and Vargas Urge HUD and FHFA to Amend Policies that are Reducing Access to Mortgage Credit for People of Color
On Thursday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO), Chair of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and Congressman Juan Vargas (D-CA), sent a to letter to Ben Carson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Mark Calabria, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), calling on the agencies to amend their policies which penalize loans that go into forbearance prior to being insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (collectively “the Enterprises”).
Chairwoman Waters made the following statement:
"These policies unfairly penalize lenders for loans that were fully underwritten according to FHA or Enterprise requirements, they have contributed to significant credit overlays that may be disproportionately impacting access to credit for minority and other underserved borrowers, and they may also be preventing borrowers from accessing forbearance and other protections available for federally backed loans. We urge you to amend these policies to prevent these harmful impacts in the midst of the already difficult conditions that this pandemic is causing,” the lawmakers wrote. “We understand the need for HUD and FHFA to appropriately manage risks, and we believe that you can do so without resorting to the policies you have in place today."
See full text of the statement here.
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Waters Condemns Deregulatory Rulemakings at SEC During the Pandemic
On Thursday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, sent a letter to Jay Clayton, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), reiterating her call for the agency to halt rulemakings unrelated to the pandemic.
Chairwoman Waters made the following statement:
“At the beginning of the crisis, I called on all of our financial regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, to immediately halt all rulemakings unrelated to addressing the pandemic,” the Chairwoman wrote. “Subsequently in March, I introduced H.R. 6321, a comprehensive bill to protect individuals, families and the economy from COVID-19, including by requiring the financial regulators to temporarily suspend all rulemakings that do not address the impacts of the pandemic. At that time, I also emphasized that it would be unacceptable for any regulator to use this crisis as an excuse to justify rollbacks of important financial regulations that are in place to protect investors and our financial system.”
Watch the press conference here.
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Tweet of the Week
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Member Spotlight
| Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) |
“Credit affects all communities, impacting what Americans pay for a car, whether they can get a mortgage for a house, the rates on a credit card, and how much they can receive for a small business loan. The impact it has is especially strong on communities of color, and experts have testified to the Financial Services Committee that the credit reporting system is biased particularly against these communities...”
- Congressman Gottheimer, on his bill to repair and strengthen the credit reporting system to better protect and inform consumers.
Congressman Gottheimer’s legislation, H.R. 5332, “The Protecting Your Credit Score Act," was debated on the House floor on Friday. The bipartisan legislation would create a new one-stop shop online portal to protect Americans' financial futures. A vote is set for the bill on Monday, June 29, 2020..
Watch Congressman Gottheimer's floor remarks here.
Weekend Reads
Chairwoman’s Corner
Waters on Her Resolution to Reverse OCC’s Harmful CRA Rule: On Friday, Chairwoman Waters delivered a floor statement in support of H.J. Res. 90, a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to nullify the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s rule undermining the Community Reinvestment Act:
"Congress must block any effort by the Trump Administration to weaken our civil rights laws and send a strong message to federal regulators that they should be doing all they can during this pandemic to help, not hurt, low- and moderate-income communities, and especially communities of color. By passing this resolution, Congress will block the OCC’s harmful rule so that once the pandemic passes, banking regulators can renew efforts to collaborate, modernize, and strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act with a new, joint rulemaking that truly benefits the communities the law was intended to help. Therefore, I urge my colleagues in the House to vote yes on H.J. Res. 90..."
Watch Chairwoman Waters' floor remarks here.
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