During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke about Republican efforts to remove CFPB protections.
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00:00President, I want to thank the Senator from Connecticut for his work today in defending
00:06the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and highlighting again the importance of this work
00:12from CFPB to help level the playing field just a little between the billionaire banks
00:20and our hard-working service members and families that are living paycheck to paycheck.
00:27I also want to thank Senator Booker for coming here and talking today about how people from
00:33New Jersey have been directly affected by overdraft fee abuses and appreciate his work on this.
00:41President Trump and Republicans promised the Americans that they would lower their cost
00:47of living and instead they are now linking arms with some of the biggest banks in the country
00:54to impose billions of dollars in fees on working families. Today Republicans are voting to overturn
01:02a CFPB rule that prevents big banks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo
01:10from saddling customers with hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees when a customer
01:17overdraws a checking account by only a few dollars. Let's be clear, this rule covers only
01:24the biggest banks, those with more than $10 billion in assets. Community banks are completely
01:32exempt from this. All this rule does is ensure that overdraft fees are reasonable. Under the rule,
01:40banks are allowed to recoup all of their costs, all of their losses associated with providing
01:46overdraft that is typically under $5, which is why the CFPB's rule generally caps overdraft fees
01:57at $5. But if the bank can show that its costs are harder, then they can charge the full amount
02:04of their actual costs and losses. What the banks cannot do is play a game of gotcha in which the
02:12bank manipulates the customer's account to hit the customers with hundreds of dollars in overdraft
02:20charges. Today a handful of giant banks are charging about $35 of bounced payment, squeezing
02:30families for far more than what it typically costs to offer this overdraft. And the consumers
02:37carrying the vast majority of these fees are disproportionately low-income Americans,
02:43with the typical customer who gets caught by overdraft fees ending up paying more than $400
02:52a year. Now, $400 can be the cost of a mortgage payment or rent for someone with a modest income.
03:00$400 can be the difference between their kid's medication or just going without. $400 for some
03:09families can be several weeks' worth of groceries. This money matters to millions of families.
03:17Altogether, the CFPB rule saves American families up to $5 billion a year. Republicans claim they
03:27care about lowering costs, but overturning this rule will make big banks richer and hard-working
03:34families poorer. The Republicans are deeply sympathetic to giant banks. They worry about
03:44poor little Wells Fargo. They shed a tear for JP Morgan's extra billion dollars in profits
03:52that they make from overdraft fees on top of the $27 billion they make in their other banking
03:59services. Yes, the Republicans worry about those giant banks and that $5 billion that they would
04:07have to forego if they could only charge $5 for an overdraft fee. Look, banks can survive
04:15with limits on overdraft fees. How do we know that? Because they're already doing it.
04:21In fact, many banks, including Capital One and Citibank, have eliminated overdraft fees entirely,
04:29and they are still making billions of dollars in profits. No, these fees are about kicking
04:37hard-working Americans when they are down. My constituent April from Massachusetts shared this.
04:45During the years of my life when money was always tight, nothing was more stressful than
04:51overdrafting my account by $1 only to lose $35 due to overdraft. More than once, that additional
05:00$35 loss tangled up my budget for multiple paychecks or made the difference between getting
05:07groceries or not. Joan, also from Massachusetts, talked about how insidious these fees can be.
05:16Quote, several times when money was tight and I refilled my account a bit too late, I was charged
05:23an overdraft fee that then itself caused the next check to bounce, causing another fee. On top of
05:31that, there were daily fees because the overdraft charges kept me behind even as I added money to
05:38the account. To make matters even worse, these abusive anti-consumer practices often target
05:45service members and military families. Last year, the CFPB ordered Navy Federal Credit Union
05:53to refund $80 million in illegal surprise overdraft fees, which they had charged service
06:01members even when the service members' accounts showed enough money to cover the transactions.
06:09Cracking down on abusive overdraft practices, particularly when they harm service members,
06:16has bipartisan support. A year ago, my then-colleague J.D. Vance and I launched an
06:24investigation into another credit union that had preyed on service members with extortionate
06:30overdraft fees. And I hope to see the same kind of bipartisan concern now and support for the CFPB
06:38rule that puts a stop to this squeeze on military families. And look, finally, I just want to
06:46mention, I know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and on this side of the aisle
06:52are concerned about debanking. Now, debanking is something that happens when a bank closes
06:58someone's account without any real explanation. Overdraft practices have been the reason for
07:08tens of millions of account closures, shutting out far too many Americans from our banking system.
07:17So, for everyone who has concerns about debanking, consider that the CFPB rule eliminates
07:25one of the main excuses that banks have used for debanking their customers. Look, our job is to
07:34lower costs for American families, not boost profits for giant banks. A vote against today's
07:41CRA is a vote to protect those families and save them $5 billion a year. I urge my colleagues
07:51to vote no. Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.