Covid-19 Fraud Prevention Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Iowa for reintroducing this bill. There is no doubt that fraudsters and other bad actors have been out taking advantage of consumers during the pandemic because they are out taking advantage of consumers every day anyway. Moreover, many of them are disproportionately targeting seniors.

The Federal Trade Commission, looking over the pandemic, has some 436,000 reports of fraud amounting to some almost $400 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission has stopped 49 companies from trading, suspended for concerns over misleading information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB, has gotten almost half a million complaints.

So this effort among the regulators that Mrs. Axne is proposing in H.R. 2959 establishes the Consumer and Investor Fraud Working Group. This working group includes representatives from the CFPB, the SEC, and is established to help coordinate and share information across the Federal Government.

The working group will focus on providing resources to consumers and investors and help them avoid falling victim to the fraudulent schemes and scams that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and after.

In addition, the working group will produce a quarterly report to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. This will allow Congress to monitor its actions and resources as it is made public.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Missouri for his leadership today on these House Financial Services Committee bills. I appreciate the hard work on a bipartisan basis on these measures. I have no additional speakers on the Republican side. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

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

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