Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chair, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is a cornerstone of the Dodd-Frank Act, has already proven invaluable in ensuring that financial products offered to American consumers comply with federal law and are not abusive or misleading.

The CFPB has brought transparency, accountability and clarity to our markets.

Because of the CFPB's work, our residential mortgage lending system is now governed by standards that cap the points and fees a lender may charge, limit risky loan products, and prohibit loans with terms longer than 30 years.

CFPB has also enacted new rules to end the abuses in the mortgage servicing process that were so common before the financial crisis. These rules require servicers to credit payments the day they are received and to respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner.

They also limit ``dual tracking'' to ensure borrowers are not foreclosed on while they wait to see if they qualify for a loan modification.

And through its enforcement actions, CFPB has already recovered approximately $3 billion for consumers who have been the victims of abuse. As of this month, the CFPB has received and is processing more than nine thousand complaints from residents of Maryland alone.

Unfortunately, rather than ensuring the CFPB has all of the resources it needs to help consumers, Republicans in the House have routinely sought to undermine the CFPB and the bill before us today simply continues that attack.

The only way to protect our constituents from entities that would take advantage of them is to vote against this bill and oppose all efforts to roll back the consumer protections enacted in the Dodd-Frank legislation.

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