Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Relating to ``Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B)''
Floor Speech
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Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
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Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S.J. Res. 32, which would repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) 1071 rule, which mandates burdensome personal data collection from small businesses when they apply for loans from financial institutions.
I very much thank Mr. Williams, the chairman of the Small Business Committee, for introducing a similar resolution here in the House for which I am a cosponsor.
Madam Speaker, we are hearing some information that should be of great interest to us all, that there is no need for small businesses to comply with the 1071 rule if, in fact, what we just heard is accurate.
I will take it a little bit further here. It is clear in Dodd-Frank at section 1071 that any applicant for credit may refuse to provide any information requested pursuant to subsection B in connection with any application for credit.
However, the CFPB 1071 rule says a low response rate to this rule may indicate a failure to comply. Therefore, the CFPB gets the statute wrong, and this is another example of their overreach. If the statute is clear that any applicant may refuse, then how can refusal somehow be a sign that a lender is not complying with the statute? Lenders know and are rightfully concerned that failing to get a high response rate will likely result in running afoul of the CFPB or being publicly named and shamed by progressive activists. Regulating to generate fear among law-abiding businesses is terrible public policy, Madam Speaker.
I urge us to be real here, to deal with the real world, to actually engage small businesses as the CFPB should do along with consumers, along with homeowners, along with small businesses.
We need to support this resolution, and I urge all Members of this House, as well as President Biden, to stand with small businesses.
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