| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Using Power to Convene
00:10:42
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| Participants in this pledge, it's a good start. | ||
| And the response has been overwhelming, gratifyingly so. | ||
| The effort took place with the government as a sponsor, as a steward, as a cheerleader. | ||
| It was led by wonderful people who realized that we had an opportunity to do good and that government, you don't have to always do it yourself. | ||
| You can use the power to convene to pull together powerful interests. | ||
| We have discussed extensively with individual physicians this idea. | ||
| We've talked about it with health systems, with associations, with congressional partners. | ||
| You'll hear from some of them in a moment. | ||
| CMS is going to publish a full list of participating plans later this summer with some details of how it's going to roll out and the initial commitments, like for example, code reductions, the number of procedures that would have to be subjugated to pre-authorization or similar limitations, the continuity of care protections to make sure that you don't lose coverage when you switch between plans. | ||
| It's going to go live by January 26th. | ||
| It's a fast timeline, but in seven months, we'll be able to give to the American people something they've been asking for, something that's been in the news recently because of the difficulty of obtaining it, which is the freedom from prior authorization when used incorrectly. | ||
| So, what's the blueprint? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch the rest of this on our free C-SPAN Now video app as we take you now to the U.S. Capitol, where the House is gambling in. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 3422 as amended. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union calendar number 87, H.R. 3422, a bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require the advocate for small business capital formation to provide educational resources and host events to promote capital raising options for traditionally underrepresented small businesses and for other purposes. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Montana, Mr. Downey, and the gentleman from California, Mr. Sherman, each will control 20 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Montana. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and exclude extraneous materials in this bill. | |
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | |
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3422, the Promoting Opportunities for Non-Traditional Capital Formation Act, and I thank Representative Waters for her leadership on this bipartisan legislation. | |
| Far too often, access to capital depends not on the quality of a business idea, but on where that business is located. | ||
| Data shows that the vast majority of venture capital investment flows to companies in just three states: California, Massachusetts, and New York, leaving entrepreneurs in other regions at a disadvantage. | ||
| This bill takes a targeted step to help address that imbalance. | ||
| It directs the SEC's Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to do more to support underserved entrepreneurs, particularly those in rural communities or outside of traditional investment hubs. | ||
| Specifically, the bill requires the advocate to provide educational resources and host public events that highlight the capital-raising tools available under federal securities laws. | ||
| These tools exist, but many founders simply don't know how to use them or that they're just not even an option. | ||
| H.R. 3422 ensures that founders from all backgrounds and regions have the information they need to pursue the capital formation strategy that works best for their businesses. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan effort, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman in Reserves. | ||
| Gentlemen in Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from California. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Waters, the ranking member of our full committee, as much time as she may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Gentlewoman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 3422, the Promoting Opportunities for Non-Traditional Capital Formation Act. | ||
| This bill deals with the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, which is an independent SEC office that was established to advance the interests of small businesses. | ||
| The office proactively works to identify and address unique challenges faced by minority-owned, women-owned, and rural small businesses, as well as businesses located in natural disaster areas. | ||
| My bill requires the SEC, Small Business Advocate, to provide educational resources and hosts events to promote capital raising options for these underrepresented small businesses. | ||
| My bill would also require the office to meet annually with representatives of state securities commissions to ensure that there is a whole of government approach to addressing the unique needs of underrepresented businesses. | ||
| The North American Securities Administration Association, or SA, NASA, strongly supports this legislation, particularly as it would, quote, strengthen collaboration and coordination between regulars, unquote. | ||
| In a letter to my office written in support of this bill, when it was previously introduced, NASA emphasized former Republican SEC Commissioner Michael Pew comments that, | ||
| quote, for a capital formation agenda to succeed, it is essential that state and federal regulators work together to support the businesses that seek to engage in these offerings while also protecting investors, unquote. | ||
| Indeed, my bill makes sure that federal regulators and state regulators do just that while at the same time advancing the cause of small business capital formation across the spectrum. | ||
| I'd like to thank my colleague, Ms. Wagner, for co-sponsoring my bill, and I would urge my colleagues to join us in passing this bill into law. | ||
| I thank you, and I yield back the balance of my time to Mr. Sherman. | ||
| From California. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman Reserves. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, I reserve. | |
| Gentleman from Montana, reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from California. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have another bill. | |
| What? | ||
| We have another bill. | ||
| After this one, yeah, but first we've got to finish. | ||
| Yeah, I have. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I'm prepared to close if the gentleman from Montana has no further speakers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I'm prepared to close. | |
| And I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. | ||
| I rise in strong support of the bill of my good friend and ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, Ms. Waters, which requires the SEC Office of Small Business Advocate to provide educational resources and host events to promote capital raising options for small businesses. | ||
| Her bill would also require the Small Business Office to coordinate on an annual basis with state securities commissions to ensure both federal and state regulators are working as effectively and efficiently as possible to address the needs of small businesses. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support Ms. Waters bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| Gentleman from Montana. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | |
| Gentlemen is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For the reasons I explained earlier, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back. | |
| And the question is, will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 3422 as amended? | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I request the yays and nays. | |
| For what purpose? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I request the yeas and nays. | |
| The yeas and nays are requested, and all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. | ||
| After a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| pursuant to Clause A, the Rule 20, further proceedings on this question, will be postponed. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Tennessee seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 2808 as amended. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
| Union Calendar number 133, H.R. 2808, a bill to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prevent consumer reporting agencies from furnishing consumer reports under certain circumstances and for other purposes. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule of the gentleman from Tennessee and the gentleman from California, Mr. Sherman, each will control 20 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| I yield myself as much time as I may consume. | ||
| Recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, before I get to the specifics of this bill, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Congressman Richie Torres, who has been an outstanding co-lead and steadfast advocate for the Home Buyers Privacy Protection Act. | ||
|
Trigger Leads Flood America
00:10:16
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| This has been a long journey leading up to today's vote, and I want to thank Representative Torres for his unyielding desire to put a stop to the scourge of abusive mortgage trigger leads. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2808, the Home Buyers Privacy Protection Act, will literally impact each and every consumer that applies for a mortgage in this country. | ||
| Currently, credit bureaus are notified when a consumer applies for mortgage financing. | ||
| That information, which is referred to as a trigger lead, is then often sold by the credit bureaus to data brokers and other lenders without the consumer's knowledge or approval. | ||
| Consumers are then often bombarded with hundreds of unwanted solicitations. | ||
| The Home Buyers Privacy Protection Act would dramatically reduce the number of unwanted calls and messages that millions endure during the home buying process. | ||
| The bill prohibits a consumer reporting agency from furnishing a trigger lead to a third party unless the consumer has opted in. | ||
| The third party must be a federally insured depository institution, a federally insured credit union, or is an original originator or a servicer of a consumer's existing mortgage. | ||
| Agencies can also furnish a trigger lead if a consumer has a pre-existing relationship with a covered entity. | ||
| Over the years, I have heard from individuals from all walks of life about their deep-seated frustrations when it comes to being inundated by abusive mortgage credit trigger leads. | ||
| Being contacted dozens to hundreds of times a day after applying for a mortgage is simply unacceptable. | ||
| Many abusive trigger leads occur at nearly all hours of the day and night. | ||
| This is especially true if the trigger lead user resides in a different time zone than the individual that they are contacting. | ||
| It is also important to note that many of these merciless trigger leads come from unscrupulous companies that misrepresent the important fact that they are not affiliated with the mortgage company the individual initially applied with. | ||
| Another important factor to consider is that when consumers get flooded with trigger leads, they often blame their mortgage originator despite that mortgage originators having no role in selling their information. | ||
| Just this weekend, my own sister-in-law, who applied for a mortgage last week, was inundated with literally hundreds of these contacts. | ||
| So this is very personal to me and my family. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen, reserves. | ||
| Gentlemen from California. | ||
| I yield myself as much time as I may consume. | ||
| Recognized. | ||
| I rise in support of H.R. 2808, the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act, and I commend Representative Rose and Representative Torres for introducing it. | ||
| I want to thank the sponsors for their good work on this bipartisan bill, and I appreciate the House is taking action to improve data privacy, in this case with respect to the mortgage market. | ||
| First, let's discuss, as I think the gentleman has, what a trigger lead it is. | ||
| You go to a particular lender or mortgage broker, you apply for a mortgage. | ||
| You want to deal with that mortgage broker or that financial institution. | ||
| If you wanted to deal with others, you'd go elsewhere. | ||
| If you wanted to deal with several, you'd call several. | ||
| But you seek a mortgage loan, and of course, the mortgage lender has to look at your credit report. | ||
| So they call Equifax or whoever, or email Equifax, and get your credit report. | ||
| And then the Credit Bureau sells that information, which you don't want divulged, which the lender doesn't want divulged, to other financial institutions without your permission, creating a so-called trigger lead. | ||
| And then, as is pointed out, you become bombarded with phone calls, text messages, and other communications from rival mortgage loan officers. | ||
| They may even give you misleading or deceptive information. | ||
| H.R. 2808 would curtail this abusive practice, limiting trigger lead notifications to a financial firm that a consumer already has a relationship with, like their current mortgage lender, or if the consumer opts in and you can't opt in, then you can have everybody call you. | ||
| Now, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the good work of our former colleague, Representative Lacey Clay, who helped pave the path by first introducing a bill to curb abusive trigger leads clear back in 2020. | ||
| Representative Clay's original bill didn't have any exceptions at all and simply required that consumer opt-in, and if the consumer chose not to opt in, their information could not be shared with other companies when they applied for a mortgage loan. | ||
| Consumer opt-in is an approach that data privacy advocates prefer and one that Committee Democrats argued for last Congress when the committee considered former Chair McHenry's version of this bill. | ||
| We should put consumers first, put them in the driver's seat to control the use, sharing, and selling of their data. | ||
| This bill gets us all almost all the way there. | ||
| It does provide exceptions for those financial institutions that you already have a relationship with. | ||
| We are not debating consumer privacy in a vacuum. | ||
| It is unfortunate that Elon Musk and his Doge minions have had access to data on hundreds of millions of Americans, and I wish we were here on the floor preventing Mr. Musk from getting our personal health records, our consumer data, our business records, our Social Security numbers, and our tax data. | ||
| So, after we pass this bill, I hope that the Financial Services Committee would investigate what has happened to consumer protection, particularly and what has happened to data privacy, particularly with regard to data obtained from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Treasury Department. | ||
| With that being said, this bill is an important step toward protecting consumers from abuse, making sure that the fact that they applied for a mortgage with one mortgage company isn't sold against their will to every other mortgage company in the country. | ||
| So, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen in Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Tennessee. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I'm prepared to close and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentlemen in Reserve. | ||
| Gentleman from California. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I'm prepared to close after hearing that the other side has no further speakers. | ||
| I yield myself the balance of my time. | ||
| As I've discussed, H.R. 2808 is an important positive step to strengthen data privacy for consumers and curb the harmful practice of trigger lead and protect consumers from entities that they didn't want to do business with, never sought to do business with, finding out that they're applying for a mortgage and then harassing them with a host of texts and calls, etc. | ||
| H.R. 2808 is supported by a wide range of groups, including the National Consumer Law Center, the National Association of Home Builders, the Independent Community Bankers of America, America's Credit Unions. | ||
| And the Senate recently passed a nearly identical bill by unanimous consent. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from Tennessee. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. | ||
| Recognized. | ||
| I want to emphasize just how much support there is for this legislation. | ||
| My colleague has just enumerated some of that. | ||
| This month, 43 Attorneys General and members of the National Association of Attorneys General signed a letter supporting this bill. | ||
| Additionally, many organizations, some already mentioned, have come out in support of this bill, including the American Bankers Association, the Tennessee Bankers Associations, America's Credit Unions, the Broker Action Coalition, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the National Association of Mortgage Bankers. | ||
| I urge each of my colleagues to stand up for every future homebuyer in their districts by voting yes on H.R. 2808. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time. | ||
| The question is: Will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill H.R. 2808 as amended? | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. | ||
| The bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to Clause 12A of Rule 1, the Chair declares the House in recess until approximately 6.30 p.m. today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today in the House, members are considering several bills, including a measure which seeks to improve the review process of foreign purchases of U.S. farmland and agricultural businesses. | |
|
Legislating Against Drunk Driving
00:00:24
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unidentified
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Also, legislation requiring the U.S. to support and advocate for Taiwan's membership in the International Monetary Fund. | |
| Later this week, lawmakers will take up a bill reducing undocumented immigrants in the country, including deporting non-citizens who have been convicted or admitted to driving drunk. | ||