Consumers First Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOLDEN. Madam Chair, I first want to thank Chairwoman Waters for her hard work and the hard work of the committee on behalf of American families in Maine and across the country who have fallen victim to financial schemes.

I rise today to offer my amendment on behalf of military servicemembers and veterans and their families. One of the challenges that military men and women face are countless financial scams that exist in the financial marketplace. Travel just outside of a military base, Madam Chair, and there will be payday lenders with high interest rates, title loan companies, and supplemental life insurance schemes all looking for their next target.

Military personnel who are distracted by financial problems created by these schemes cannot focus on doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. If the problems get out of hand, they can even end a military career. On average, thousands of servicemembers are separated each year from the military for financial hardship and other issues related to these types of schemes. Even worse, many servicemembers or their families come under pressure from scammers while they are in the midst of a deployment.

Just as an example of this, I was in an infantry unit. I served in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have known people who have actually taken the time, when they get that rare opportunity, to hop on to a sat phone. They should be calling their family or a loved one, and instead they are calling to talk to a debt collector because they had fallen victim to one of these scams, then had it turned over to a debt collector. By law that is not supposed to happen, but too often servicemembers don't know what their rights are and what the law is, and they end up trying to deal with this kind of a stress while in the midst of a deployment to a place like Iraq.

We know it is not right. We need to make sure struggling military families can have resources that they can turn to for help.

Unfortunately, these challenges don't stop upon leaving the service either. According to a study done by the AARP, nearly eight in ten veterans report having received a scam attempt in the last 5 years. I get them myself. I get them in the mail. I get them from people talking to me about my VA home loan or education benefits and others, offering what sounds like a good deal, but we know it is not.

Recognizing the vulnerability of vets and servicemembers to predatory lenders and other financial scams, Congress created the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the CFPB. The office monitors complaints from servicemembers and veterans and their families and takes appropriate action to protect them.

Since 2011 the CFPB has received approximately 123,000 complaints from servicemembers, and the problem is not improving; it is actually getting worse. From 2016 to 2017, there was a 47 percent increase in complaints received from servicemembers.

My amendment helps ensure that the CFPB can better protect veterans and servicemembers from financial abuse, fraud, and scams. The provision opens up CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board to a representative veteran from the military community and the veterans' community.

The advisory board is a critical part of CFPB's role as a watchdog for consumers. They inform CFPB about emerging trends, they share analysis and recommendations for action and policies, and they assess the consumer impact of emerging financial products, practices, and services.

Putting a family member of a servicemember or a veteran on the advisory board will ensure that CFPB is better informed of new and emerging scams and tactics targeting servicemembers and veterans so that we are better able to protect them.

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Mr. GOLDEN. Madam Chair, I will go ahead and close and leave it to the gentleman to close on his end.

This amendment will help servicemembers, veterans, and their families make sure that they are protected financially and give them a voice at the table. I encourage my colleagues to support it. I thank the ranking member for encouraging his colleagues to support it as well.

I would be happy to talk to our colleague from Kentucky about ways in which we can work together to protect our servicemembers and veterans. I know we are all in on that together, to do the best that we can for our servicemembers and veterans.

Madam Chair, I thank the ranking member, the chairwoman, and the entire committee for their support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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