Military Personnel, Financial Services Protection Act
MILITARY PERSONNEL, FINANCIAL SERVICES PROTECTION ACT -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 11, 2005)
SPEECH OF
HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005
Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my strong support for H.R. 458, the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act. This legislation protects the men and women of our armed forces from predatory lenders that target service members.
There are a number of companies known as ``military lenders'' that offer our troops ill-advised and costly products, such as loans with exorbitant rates and hidden fees. They often cluster around military installations and aggressively target service members and their families, who are uniquely vulnerable to these abusive marketing and collection practices. As an example, the zip code 76903 of San Angelo in my Congressional District borders Goodfellow Air Force Base and has 11 banks and eight payday lenders.
Unfortunately, a large number of our young troops have limited experience dealing with financial matters and many fall victim to abusive lending practices. Additionally, they often have relatively low incomes which may lead them to borrow in order to pay current expenses and debts. This is especially troubling in a time when we are experiencing extended troop deployments and families at home are struggling to make ends meet while the service member is deployed. The problem has become so pervasive that the Pentagon has launched a new effort aimed at educating our troops and warning them about the dangers of abusive military lenders.
Not only do these predatory lending practices affect the financial well-being of the men and women of our armed services, but it also threatens the operational readiness of our military. The last thing we need is for service members who are putting their lives on the line for our nation to be overwhelmed with financial stresses back home.
H.R. 458 addresses this problem by imposing certain restrictions on various types of specialty lenders that target service members. Additionally, it protects the interests of service members by requiring additional disclosures with regard to these types of loans. H.R. 458 is responsible legislation that protects the rights of the men and women of our military while still affording them options with regard to their finances.
Mr. Speaker, I commend the House of Representatives for passing this legislation and addressing an issue that is vitally important to our nation's dedicated troops.
http://thomas.loc.gov