Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LYNCH. Madam Chair, I want to thank Chairwoman Waters for her great work on this bill. She has been a true champion on behalf of consumers during her time in Congress.

This chart shows the decrease in enforcement actions which have plummeted by 75 percent under the Office of Management and Budget Director Mulvaney. Bear in mind that corruption and abuse of consumers has not gone away. This is a time period when Wells Fargo--a perfect example--robbed their customers, opened up fake accounts to basically take the proceeds, used their--this is when customers went to Wells Fargo, gave them all their information, Wells Fargo used their Social Security numbers and data to open up fake accounts, so they could charge their own customers--flat-out theft--and they had to fire 5,300 employees. That doesn't happen by accident. That is a business model that is built on abusing the consumer.

That is why the CFPB is necessary, and that is why we need to pass this bill today. I support the chairwoman's efforts in this regard.

A dramatic decline is evident, from 54 cases in the Obama administration to 11 this year. The sheriff has basically left the street. There is no more cop on the beat now with respect to protecting the consumer.

Madam Chair, I thank the chairwoman for giving me this time to point out the need for the Consumers First Act, a great bill.

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