House Financial Services Chairman Maxine Waters wrote a 45-page letter to President-elect Joe Biden listing all the regulatory decisions that were made in the last four years in the agencies under her committee’s jurisdiction that she thinks should be reversed when he gets into office. She also wants Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger fired.
House and Senate conferees on the defense authorization bill have decided not to give banks the free rent benefits that credit unions have on military installations. The conferees have included the money laundering provisions that credit union trade groups wanted in the bill. But it’s still not clear if the bill will become law because President Trump has indicated he may veto it.
A guide to what must happen and what may happen as Congress rushes to wrap everything up in the two weeks that remain before it adjourns for the year.
Congressional negotiators will include anti-money laundering provisions in the annual defense authorization bill. The negotiators have not come to a decision on whether banks should be treated the same as credit unions with free rent benefits on military bases. Passage of the bill is further complicated by President Trump threatening a veto of the bill because it contains provisions to rename military bases.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has released all of its FY21 spending measures. The Financial Services bill eliminates all funding for the Community Development Revolving Loan Fund. Proposed spending on CDFIs remains the same as the past year.
The Trump Administration ignored congressional guidance to place a high priority on helping small businesses in underserved areas weather the pandemic—one of myriad failures in the administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis, House Democrats charged Friday. Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis issued a scathing report Friday, charging that the administration failed to adequately assist Americans as the virus spread. “The Select Subcommittee’s findings demonstrate that the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is among the worst failures of leadership in American history,” the subcommittee charged. In releasing the report, Subcommittee Chairman James Clyburn (D-S.C.)
Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee have introduced legislation to extend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover financial institutions. While it won’t pass in this session, it may be an indicator of Democratic goals if they win a majority in both houses of Congress.
A group of House members is pushing their leaders to extend two provisions of coronavirus economic stimulus laws that the group says is crucial to the ability of banks and credit unions to help their customers and members weather the pandemic. Led by Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), the group wants any future coronavirus legislation to include an extension of the temporary Troubled Debt Restructuring and the National Credit Union Administration’s Central Liquidity Facility provisions that were included in coronavirus economic stimulus legislation earlier this year. Both provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of the year and the House
The staff of the Democratic-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis reports that in the first round of Payroll Protection Program lending, Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions were largely excluded.
As the financial health of consumers deteriorates due to the pandemic, Senate Banking Committee ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio said he is concerned that financial services regulators, including the National Credit Union Administration, are not prepared for a possible financial crisis.