On the recordJune 8, 2017
I thank the ranking member for yielding. I rise today in strong opposition to the Financial CHOICE Act because it will gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and roll back important protections for seniors, for students, and for hardworking families across the country. The CFPB protects Americans from unscrupulous financial practices and deceitful debt collectors. Since its creation, it has assisted more than 29 million consumers, many of them seniors, with mortgages, credit cards, and debt collection. Unfortunately, seniors are especially vulnerable to financial fraud and abuse. This bill would roll back the CFPB's ability to identify and stop unfair and abusive debt collection and telemarketing practices; and this harmful bill would also prevent the CFPB from cracking down on predatory payday lenders who take advantage of struggling families by issuing loans at exorbitant rates. I worked as a consumer protection attorney, and I worked with too many families there who lost their homes, too many seniors who were harassed by debt collectors, too many people who were victims of predatory payday lending and got into the quicksand and were not able to get out. We cannot allow this shortsighted bill to stop the good work of the CFPB. This bill is called the CHOICE Act, but it is the wrong choice, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.
