José E. Serrano: “I thank our ranking member for the time. First, let me mention a few of the good things in the Financial Services bill.…”

“I thank our ranking member for the time. First, let me mention a few of the good things in the Financial Services bill. We were able to substantially increase funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission by $150 million above last year's level. We were also able to increase funding for the Community Development Financial Institutions fund and to authorize the CDFI's fund bond guarantee program for another year. We also increased robust funding for the SBA to help our Nation's small businesses, and we added additional dollars to the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. We removed numerous troubling riders that affected the Affordable Care Act, travel to Cuba, and the ability of the SEC to police our markets. Unfortunately, several problems remain in the bill. The bill would essentially repeal an important provision of Dodd-Frank to prevent banks from engaging in risky swaps activities backed by their depositors and ultimately by the Federal Government. The protections of Dodd-Frank were put in place to prevent a return to the risky transactions that led to the 2008 meltdown. We should not backtrack on those important reforms. I am also very concerned about the cuts made to the IRS which will force the agency to operate at levels below that of sequestration. This would cause a serious strain on the agency.…”