Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. ADAMS. Madam Chair, before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there was no Federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers from predatory and abusive practices, so I am grateful to my chair for bringing this issue before us.

I am not exactly sure why my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been so resistant to protecting consumers and to restoring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to its original intent.

My amendment would restore the relationship between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education. Specifically, it would reestablish an interagency agreement concerning the sharing of student borrower complaints and allow for cooperation in the supervision and oversight of student loan servicers.

It is critical that the Department of Education work with the CFPB on student loan oversight. Currently, the Department of Education is refusing to share information about loan servicers and student borrower complaints, which is making it more difficult for the CFPB to conduct its investigations into the lenders' bad behavior and deceptive practices.

In fact, last Thursday, it was reported that the Director of the CFPB, in response to Senator Warren's inquiry, stated that Secretary DeVos and the Department of Education were blocking efforts to conduct proper oversight on the student loan industry.

Because of the stance the Department of Education has taken, many student loan servicers and lenders are not complying with CFPB's request for information as well. These companies that manage student loans are refusing to share information that the CFPB needs to perform proper oversight. This is unacceptable.

The national student loan debt has reached crisis levels. The American people are getting crushed by more than $1.5 trillion in student debt. Moreover, we have seen countless lawsuits allege that widespread wrongdoing by student loan companies is costing some borrowers thousands of dollars.

This critical amendment would put borrowers back at the center of the Bureau's consumer protection work.

Our constituents have elected us to look out for their best interests, to protect them from harmful policies, and to provide them recourse when they get into difficult situations. Dismantling, undermining, and weakening the CFPB is not in our constituents' best interests.

I thank Chairwoman Waters for her leadership in restoring the CFPB to its original intent.

Let's do the right thing for the American people. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment to help student borrowers and to support H.R. 1500.

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Ms. ADAMS. Madam Chair, I appreciate the comments from my colleague from North Carolina.

But we want to make sure that private loan services who collect payments, or those who collect payments from students, are doing their job.

Now, yes, students want choices. I taught for 40 years on the campus of Bennett College. I know the difficulty that students have, and I know that they leave college with a lot of debt, but we should not hold them hostage. They are asking for a choice to resolve the problems, and they need someone there who will speak for them.

That is what this bill will do. That is what was done before, and we need to restore that kind of confidence back into these students so that they know that they can get some help when they need it.

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Ms. ADAMS. Madam Chair, let me just say this: This is a good amendment. This is a great bill. It is an opportunity for us to restore some confidence and integrity into this process.

We should not hold our students hostage and penalize them because of something that the Congressman said the government has done.

Madam Chair, we have an opportunity to fix this, and I would certainly encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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