WASHINGTON UPDATE
FROM THE INTEREST GROUPS
A number of consumer groups
have sent a letter to the House
Energy and Commerce Committee’s
Subcommittee, expressing support for
their interest in improving consumer
protections
against
unwanted
robocalls,
but
also
expressing
concerns regarding some of their
proposals. You can read the letter here.
In another disturbing look at the
savings habits/abilities of Americans,
a study from financial services website
GoBankingRates found that “Close to
half of those who earn from $100,000
to $149,999 a year have less than
$1,000 in their savings accounts. Some
18 percent of them have socked away
absolutely nothing.” While the study
concluded that at all income levels,
people have trouble spending less than
they make, it will come as no surprise
that those who had the hardest time
saving are low-income workers.
A coalition of community banks and
civil rights groups urged Congress to
avoid making big changes to Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac during the
omnibus appropriations debate. The
group, which includes the Community
Mortgage Lenders of America and
Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, expressed “strong opposition”
to “piecemeal” language attached to
must-pass, year-end legislation. They
voiced particular concern about any
effort to spin off the companies’ system
for bundling and selling mortgages.
You can read their letter to the leaders
of the House Financial Services
and
Appropriations
committees.
October 2, 2016
Issue three of our weekly update,
designed to keep NACBA members
abreast of any significant and relevant
activity on the part of Congress,
regulatory agencies and interest
groups/think tanks during the week.
5204, The Stop Taxing Death and
Disability Act, sponsored by Rep.
Peter Roskam (R-IL), which protects
families from being hit with a large
tax bill when federal student loans
are forgiven due to death or disability.
ON THE HILL After weeks of “talks,’
Congress approved a short-term
funding bill to avoid a government
shutdown at the start of the new fiscal
year on October 1. The bill, which was
signed into law by President Obama,
funds the federal government through
Dec. 9 and, in addition to funding
government programs, also provides
funds to combat the Zika virus and
sends $500 million to Louisiana and
other states facing natural disasters.
The weeks-long funding fight was
resolved after a bipartisan deal was
worked out by House Speaker Paul
Ryan (R-WI) and Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) to ensure that Flint,
Michigan’s water crisis is addressed
in the lame duck session.
Both
chambers have adjourned and plan to
be back in session in mid-November.
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI),
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Dick
Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation
to help Americans burdened by
the costs of illness or injury. The
Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act
of 2016 (S. 3385) would make the
bankruptcy process more forgiving for
those driven to insolvency by health
care-related debt or loss of income.
But before they left, the House
Ways and Means Committee last
week approved the bipartisan H.R.
8
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
Wells Fargo remains in the “hot
seat” after a grilling last week in the
Senate Banking Committee. In the
wake of that hearing, Senate Banking
Committee Democrats this week
submitted additional questions to the
bank. Among other things, lawmakers
are requesting basic information on the
precise dates of when Stumpf, Wells
Fargo’s board of directors, and Carrie
Tolstedt, who led the firm’s community
banking unit, learned that thousands of
the bank’s employees were defrauding
customers nationwide, as well as
Fall 2016
questions on state-by-state data for
affected customers, steps that the bank
is taking to repair damage to credit
scores, and timelines of interactions
with regulators. Yesterday, it was the
House Financial Services Committee’s
turn to question Mr. Stumpf.
He
faced blistering questions from both
sides of the aisle for over four hours.
Wells
Fargo
faced
additional
scrutiny late last week when leading
Democratic Senators, including Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), Sherrod Brown (DOH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken
(D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (DCT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),
sent a letter to Wells Fargo, urging
the bank to end its use of forced
arbitration in consumer contracts.
And finally, 104 House Democrats
sent a letter to the Consumer
Financial
Protection
Bureau
(CFPB) encouraging the agency to
strengthen their payday lending rules.
IN THE AGENCIES The CFPB filed
a lawsuit in federal district court
against the credit repair company
Prime Marketing Holdings, LLC,
which allegedly charged consumers
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys