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generation of wealth was wiped out. The financial foundation for future generations collapsed and may never be rebuilt. Families can’t start a family, save for college, or set aside for their own retirement. In the wake of the crisis, Democrats in Congress said, never again, and we took needed action to ensure that this sort of abusive behavior would never be repeated. We passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect American consumers from the types of practices that led to this crisis. Now, even as the big banks, the creators of the financial crisis, are making record profits, the Financial CHOICE Act would once again give Wall Street permission to swindle working families and destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This would be extremely harmful for hardworking Americans across the country. Since its founding, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been a powerful ally of the little guy. It has delivered nearly $12 billion in relief to more than 29 million consumers harmed by predatory lenders, big banks, abusive debt collectors, and outright scammers. Our Nation’s veterans and military families have been some of the major beneficiaries of the agency’s work. The agency worked with state attorneys general to secure debt relief for 17,000 servicemembers tricked into taking out high-cost loans. It ordered Navy Federal Credit Union to pay $28.5 million for using illegal debt collection practices. It is suing Navient, the Nation’s largest student loan company, for illegal practices against millions of borrowers, including severely injured veterans. The Bureau has also addressed the discriminatory practices that impact communities of color in the financial system head-on. The agency acted against Ally Bank, Honda, and Toyota for charging higher interest rates for African-American, Latino, and Asian borrowers regardless of their credit score. It strengthened protections for families who depend on prepaid debit cards for their wages and often fall into a spiral of debt from payday and auto title loans. The Bureau continues to target banks who are denying loans to qualified borrowers of color across the country. Let’s be clear: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is truly living up to its name. Mr. Speaker, nobody should want to return to a system that failed us and produced the financial crisis that damaged so many lives. Too many families and communities still carry the devastating scars of 2008, but that is exactly what the Financial CHOICE Act is trying to do. A rigged system is what led to the financial crisis, big banks got bailouts and sweetheart deals, and ordinary people suffered. That is why I
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am determined to oppose the Financial CHOICE Act, which seeks to roll back Wall Street reform and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Voting against this bill is the right thing to do for my district and it is the right thing for America. f
IN HONOR OF DEPUTY DEVIN HODGES The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. DUNCAN) for 5 minutes. Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Anderson County Master Deputy Devin Hodges, who tragically passed away June 1 in the line of duty while participating in a training exercise on Lake Hartwell. Deputy Hodges pursued his childhood dream and started his law enforcement career out of high school working as a dispatcher in Anderson County, then working for the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office, and the Lander Police Department before returning to Anderson in January of this year. As Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride said, Devin had a big personality and a big heart, and it is a big loss. Devin was a man of character, a man of faith, who was known as a great father. My thoughts and prayers are with Devin’s wife, Krystal; his four children, Jeffrey, James, Katie, and Dianna; his brother, Christopher; his sister, Dominique; and his parents, Shari and Ronnie; all of whom are constituents in my district, the Third District of South Carolina. I know Devin is in a better place right now, joining his predeceased daughter, Isabella Faith, but the family he leaves behind will still acutely feel his loss, as we always do with the loss of a loved one. I want to let the men and women in Anderson County law enforcement know that they continue to be in our prayers in this tragedy, as always with first responders, in our thoughts and our prayers. So may God bless Devin’s family, and may He continue to bless our country with stouthearted men and women like Devin, who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect us. f
BAD ACTORS ON WALL STREET The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. CICILLINE) for 5 minutes. Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, less than 10 years ago in 2008, bad actors on Wall Street brought the economy of our country to the brink of collapse. Because of their greed, recklessness, and deceit, millions of Americans lost their jobs, families were thrown out of their homes, and seniors saw their life savings evaporate before their very eyes.
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Washington bailed out the big banks and they said they were too big to fail, but the American people never got a bailout. The American people were told: You are on your own. And in seven States, including my home State of Rhode Island, we are still working to recover jobs that were lost in this Great Recession. That is why it was so important 2 years later when Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. This law was a landmark victory for the American people, especially the American consumer. That is why it is so disturbing that Republicans now want to take us back to the days of too big to fail, a time when powerful Wall Street special interests exploited consumers and small investors, and our entire economy was put at risk. The bill before us today, which I call the ‘‘Wrong’’ CHOICE Act, will turn Wall Street into the Wild West again and it will empower the big banks to do what they want at the expense of honest, hardworking families. This bill takes us back to an era when financial institutions could wipe out someone’s retirement and foreclose on innocent homeowners completely unchecked. This bill repeals commonsense requirements that require financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients. It will allow bad actors to push bad products on working people and seniors in exchange for paybacks. This bill protects forced arbitration clauses and allows companies to require their customers to waive their right to a jury trial, and deny them their day in court when their rights are violated. By the way, that includes servicemembers, brave men and women who have worn the uniform of the American Armed Forces. Unfortunately, servicemembers and veterans are often targeted for financial fraud and unscrupulous creditors because they are held to a higher standard of debt repayment. In addition, their frequent time away from home makes it harder for our servicemembers to identify scams. The CFPB has already taken at least 12 major enforcement actions directly protecting servicemembers and their families. In 2016, the CFPB fined Navy Federal Credit Union $28 million for illegal debt collection tactics. The CFPB took action against two for-profit colleges, ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges, both of which have been linked to predatory treatment of servicemembers and veterans. The now-defunct Corinthian was ordered to provide $480 million in debt relief to defrauded students, including servicemembers. In 2013, the CFPB ordered high-cost, small-dollar lender Cash America to pay up to $14 million in restitution and a $5 million penalty for violations of the Military Lending Act. Just 2 months ago, CFPB sanctioned an auto lender that harassed and
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