On the recordMay 22, 2018
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to S. 2155, which strips back and weakens many of the regulatory tools and safeguards we enacted in Dodd-Frank. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker: this bill will make our financial system more vulnerable to a financial crisis. The bill undermines important safety and soundness protections like stress tests and capital requirements, key reforms that Democrats put in place following the financial crisis that prevent the risk of bank bailouts and protect our economy and taxpayers. The bill also weakens critical consumer protections like Dodd-Frank's enhanced HMDA data monitoring and reporting requirements. Under this bill, 85 percent of depository institutions are excused from these important requirements. While many financial institutions say that these reporting requirements are too onerous and too difficult to comply with, S. 2155 will make it harder to determine if lenders are serving the credit needs of minority borrowers and to identify harmful and discriminatory lending patterns. Instead of eliminating important tools like HMDA, we should be finding ways to eliminate discrimination in lending. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
