“You have repeatedly emphasized the need to return to regular order in the Senate. That means holding a markup on major new laws affecting financial regulation.”
Letter follows Banking Committee Republicans voicing concerns about the draft text violating Senate Byrd rule
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, joined Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member, and every other committee Democrat in calling on Chairman Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to follow through on his commitment to regular order and hold a markup on the “Big, Beautiful Bill” instead of rushing it straight to the Senate floor. Signers of the letter to Scott include Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
“We write to insist that the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee observe normal order and hold a markup of the provisions in the budget reconciliation legislation that are in the committee’s jurisdiction. Not only do those provisions propose sweeping changes that would undermine our financial stability and make it easier for big banks and giant corporations to cheat American families, they also violate longstanding rules of the Senate that would make them subject to being stripped out under the Byrd rule.” wrote the Senators.
“(The bill) would eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that has returned more than $21 billion directly to families cheated by financial scams and has helped prevent the kinds of abusive practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, and retirement savings in the 2008 financial crash,” the Senators continued, outlining the stakes of the bill.
The Senators also detailed how it would gut other key financial regulatory agencies and terminate a critical housing program.
“The full committee should weigh in on the bill before it goes to the floor, especially given that it violates Senate rules as drafted. The American people deserve a fully transparent process, not a secret process for making fundamental changes to our financial system that will raise their costs, make it easier for companies to get away with fraud, and increase the risk of a financial crash. We ask that you immediately schedule a markup for this legislation,” the Senators concluded.
You can read the full letter here or below:
Dear Chairman Scott:
We write to insist that the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee observe normal order and hold a markup of the provisions in the budget reconciliation legislation that are in the committee’s jurisdiction. Not only do those provisions propose sweeping changes that would undermine our financial stability and make it easier for bad actors to cheat American families, they also violate longstanding rules of the Senate that would make them subject to being stripped out under the Byrd rule.
The draft text would gut critical financial regulatory agencies. It would eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that has returned more than $21 billion directly to families cheated by financial scams and has helped prevent the kinds of abusive practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, and retirement savings in the 2008 financial crash. It would dissolve the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the watchdog Congress created after the Enron scandal to oversee the auditing industry and ensure companies do not cook their books and defraud investors. It would destroy the Office of Financial Research and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which Congress created after the financial crisis to monitor risks in the system and intervene when necessary to prevent the next market meltdown. The bill would also terminate a critical housing affordability program, upend the statutory design of the Federal Reserve, starve the SEC of funds necessary for technology upgrades, and stop the CFPB from fully enforcing our federal anti-discrimination and fair lending laws.
Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns about this overreach. Following a closed-door meeting last week, several Republican Senators reportedly “voiced doubt” about whether these proposals would “comply with the strict rules governing the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.”
You have repeatedly emphasized the need to return to regular order in the Senate. That means holding a markup on major new laws affecting financial regulation. The full committee should weigh in on the bill before it goes to the floor, especially given that it violates Senate rules as drafted. The American people deserve a fully transparent process, not a secret process for making fundamental changes to our financial system that will raise their costs, make it easier for companies to get away with fraud, and increase the risk of a financial crash. We ask that you immediately schedule a markup for this legislation.
Sincerely,
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.