Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRENSHAW. 5485, and that I may include tabular material on the same.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, I am pleased to present to the House the fiscal year 2017 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.
As you know, this bill funds a diverse group of agencies and activities, including financial regulators, tax collection, the White House, the Federal courts, the District of Columbia, the General Services Administration, and the Small Business Administration. This bill is the product of eight hearings that we have had and the result of nearly 2,000 requests by Members from both sides of the aisle.
The bill provides $21.7 billion for fiscal year 2017. That is $1.5 billion less than last year, or a 6\1/2\ percent reduction, and it is $2.7 billion, or 11 percent below the request.
The subcommittee's allocation is a significant reduction compared to 2016. Nonetheless, the allocation is sufficient to fund vital Federal programs as well as the one-time set-asides for the expenses of the Presidential transition.
Among the priorities of this bill are law enforcement and the administration of justice. Funding for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas and the Drug-Free Communities programs are at record- high levels. The funding for the Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the agency that enforces our sanction programs, received a substantial increase. In addition, there is a healthy amount of funding for both the Federal and the D.C. judicial branches of government and for the supervision of offenders and defendants that live in our communities.
Another priority for the bill is supporting small businesses. As you know, small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They create jobs and grow the economy. This bill provides $157 million for the SBA's business loan programs. That supports $28.5 billion of 7(a) lending and $7.5 billion of so-called 504 lending.
The bill also provides record high amounts of funding for the SBA grant programs for veterans and women. It funds the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund program. For the first time this year, we include funds to make sure that individuals with disabilities have access to the capital, financial services.
In order to fund these programs at these high levels, we had to reduce funding in other areas. We cut funding for nearly two dozen agencies and programs that can operate with a little bit less, like the Office of Management and Budget and the Federal Communications Commission.
The brunt of these reductions is borne by the Internal Revenue Service and the General Services Administration. After all, those are the two agencies that receive most of the money under this appropriations bill, and they both have resent histories of inappropriate behavior.
While the bill reduces GSA funding for new construction by $1.1 billion, we provide a sizable amount for repairs and alterations for the existing Federal inventory. In addition, we continue to push GSA to develop an accurate inventory of Federal property and designate funding for the GSA to use their existing space a little more efficiently.
It has been 3 years and three Commissioners since we first discovered that the IRS had betrayed the trust of the American people by singling out individuals and groups of individuals, subjecting them to additional scrutiny based on their political philosophy, sometimes bullying them and intimidating them. You would think that maybe they would turn over a new leaf. But no, after these 3 years, they still have made a series of embarrassing management decisions, basically, at the expense of the consumer.
To remedy this, the bill includes numerous provisions to reform the IRS. It reduces their funding by $236 million below the current level. But within their overall funding, we set aside $290 million to make sure that they improve customer service so that they put the taxpayer first and that they also work on cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
To increase transparency and oversight of agencies, the bill makes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Financial Research subject to the appropriations process. We change the CFPB's leadership from a single director to a 5-member commission. We also require the Federal Communications Commission to make public any proposed rules they have 21 days before they actually vote on the rules.
To prevent agency overreach, the bill gives businesses the opportunity to change their business model, to change their operations prior to being designated as too big to fail or the so-called systemically important financial institution, or SIFI. We require further study of CFPB rules on pre-dispute arbitration.
In payday lending, we require court challenges to be resolved before the FCC implements its so-called net neutrality order. We prohibit the FCC from regulating broadband rates and keep financing for manufactured housing affordable.
In addition, the committee still has strong concerns that the FCC seems to be prolonging their pattern of regulatory overreach with its recent set-top box proposal. So we also include language that requires the FCC to stop and study this controversial rule before they can proceed any further.
The telecommunications industry is more competitive than ever, more innovative than ever; yet the Commission has been more active than ever in trying to exert regulatory control over market innovation. To return the FCC's focus toward mission critical work and away from politically charged rulemakings, this bill requires the FCC to do less with less.
To give low-income families the option of selecting a school that best meets their educational needs, the bill includes the text of the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, the so-called SOARS Act, which passed the House last month. We also include two other bills that passed the House. One extends the bankruptcy code to large financial institutions and the other one establishes a small business advocate within the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I want to thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey for their leadership and support in advancing this bill. I want to thank the members of the committee for their hard work. I certainly want to thank our hardworking staff for all the work that they have done.
I especially want to say a word about the ranking member, Mr. Serrano. As many of you know, I have decided to retire at the end of this term and leave this esteemed body. The last 4 years as chair of this subcommittee has been very interesting. It has been made even more pleasurable by my association with the ranking member, Mr. Serrano. He has the unique perspective of having chaired this subcommittee as well as serving as ranking member. I have a feeling he enjoyed being the chairman more than he enjoys being the ranking member, but nevertheless, he has been a great partner to work with. I am not sure that everything in this bill is to his liking, but I can tell you that his input has made this a better bill.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the full Appropriations Committee.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Graves), one of the valued members of our subcommittee.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei), one of the hardest-working members of our subcommittee.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Well, let me thank the gentleman for bringing this to our attention. You have my assurance, as we have previously discussed, that I will work with you to make sure that this is an open and fair process all the way down the line.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Poliquin) for the purpose of a colloquy.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, let me thank the gentleman for bringing this issue forward and thank him for the hard work that he has spent trying to let everyone know how important this is.
As he pointed out, the proposed rule before the SEC would allow mutual funds and firms to post shareholder reports and quarterly portfolio holdings on their Web sites instead of having to print them and mail them.
I understand his concerns of this adequate access to the Internet, especially, as he points out, to the elderly or folks living in rural areas. I think the SEC rule should strike the right balance.
As he knows, this rule is currently under review by the Commission. I think an amendment might have been premature, but I know this is important to him.
I thank him again for bringing it forward. I am very happy to work with him and to work with the SEC to make sure this is a balanced rule.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy) for the purpose of a colloquy.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for bringing this issue up, and I thank him for his work in other areas of the financial services industry. I know he is one of the hardworking Members who cares about what happens and about making sure that we keep our financial system orderly and fair.
I know a critical part of the SEC's mission is to make sure that our markets are fair and to make sure that they are orderly. I am happy to commit to working with the gentleman and to working with the SEC on this very important issue. Again, I thank the gentleman for bringing it to our attention.
Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stivers).
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. McClintock) having assumed the chair, Mr. Carter of Georgia, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 5485) making appropriations for financial services and general government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.
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