Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my colleague from New Jersey Mr. Gottheimer's bill, H.R. 5914, the Empowering States to Protect Seniors from Bad Actors Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor. Increasingly, senior investors and consumers have become the target of financial exploitation. Sadly, one in five older Americans have been victimized by financial fraud. Madam Speaker, in today's world of technology and telemarketing calls and robocalls, it is only getting worse. I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that I have had many lives in my life. I am like a cat. The first life I had was as a geriatric social worker. I saw it back then, but it was a little bit different. Now, with technology and all the high-tech things that one can do, it gets worse and worse. The numbers are getting higher, and the dollar values are getting higher. Protecting seniors from financial exploitation is critical to ensuring that seniors can maintain a secure retirement. This bill will help do that. It creates a senior investor protection grant program to be implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will work closely with State securities regulators to protect older investors and educate seniors about financial matters and financial scams. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Waters and Representative Gottheimer for bringing this bipartisan bill before us today. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I look forward to seeing it come to fruition.”