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Subcommittee Examines Legal and Ethical Violations at HUD The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee heard testimony at its hearing on Wednesday that senior officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development broke federal law and faced minor consequences for various ethical and legal violations. In its coverage of the hearing testimony, the Washington Post reported the alleged violations include financial fraud, sexual harassment, nepotism and conflicts of interest. "I want to make clear to committee members that these are different allegations against different employees in diffe... Read More »

Washington ‘Rolling the Dice’ Again on Risky Housing Schemes At a hearing on Tuesday, members of the committee voiced their strong concerns to the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding recent FHFA actions that could repeat the same mistakes that led to the financial crisis. "Contrary to the fable told by the left, the root cause of the financial crisis was not deregulation but dumb regulation. Regulations and statutes that either incented or mandated financial institutions to loan money to people to buy homes they ultimately could not afford to keep. Exhibit one, Fannie and ... Read More »

CLICK HERE TO WATCH In this week's FSC Video Message, members give their thoughts on the president’s State of the Union speech. Read More »

Committee Adopts Oversight Plan On Wednesday the Committee voted unanimously to adopt the Committee's oversight plan for the 114th Congress. "No one in Washington – Republican or Democrat – should ever be allowed to carelessly spend the hard-eared taxpayers’ money. And that is why this committee will continually and vigilantly monitor every agency and every program under our jurisdiction. Hopefully we feel this is a bipartisan mission and a bipartisan commitment," said Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). "If a program isn’t working, if it does more harm than good, it is time to reform it or it is ... Read More »

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) will appear on CSPAN’s Newsmakers this Sunday, January 25th at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET. The Chairman will offer his thoughts on the President’s State of the Union speech, fundamental tax reform, the economy, and the need for Congress to pass sustainable housing finance reform. ### Read More »

Bipartisan Majority Passes Regulatory Relief Bill to Help Create Jobs On Wednesday the House passed H.R. 37, the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act, with a bipartisan vote of 271-154. The bill is a package of 11 targeted measures overwhelmingly supported by Republicans and Democrats in the 113th Congress which reduce regulatory burdens and make it easier for small businesses to access job-creating capital. “It is clear that smart regulations allow the private sector to innovate and create more jobs while protecting taxpayers and consumers. However, it is equally cle... Read More »

House's TRIA Reauthorization and Dodd-Frank Clarification Bill Headed to President's Desk The House once again overwhelmingly passed a long-term reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) with taxpayer protection reforms this week. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), included the reestablishment of NARAB and also a critically important clarification of Dodd-Frank to prevent further harm to jobs on Main Street. Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said the bill “clarifies that Main Street businesses, farmers and ranchers – who had nothing to do with the 2008 financial... Read More »

This morning, Washington Democrats are feverishly trying to spin Harry Reid’s decision to prevent the Senate from taking a vote on the bipartisan House-passed bill to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. From their seats on their flights home for the holidays, Democrats are trying their hardest to blame TRIA’s demise on the inclusion of a technical clarification of the Dodd-Frank law that, as a standalone measure, passed the House almost unanimously. That might be true if facts did not get in the way. Rep. Maxine Waters—the highest ranking Democratic Member on the Financial Services C... Read More »

Hensarling Announces Subcommittee Chairs and Welcomes Republican Members to the Financial Services Committee "I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to pass laws that help grow the economy from Main Street up, not Washington down,” said Chairman Hensarling. “Our committee will continue to focus on promoting sensible solutions that help create jobs and hold both Washington and Wall Street accountable to the American people." The subcommittee chairmen for the 114th Congress: Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) will serve as Chairman of the Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises Su... Read More »

Investigation Reveals Export-Import Bank Exaggerating Help for Small Business Reuters news agency investigation finds Ex-Im lists “companies owned by billionaires” and “Japanese and European conglomerates” as “small businesses” Ex-Im’s list of “small businesses” includes one that has 53,000 employees “The errors make it difficult to identify exactly how much Ex-Im support goes to big businesses such as Caterpillar and how much to small companies.” Hensarling: “The bulk of Ex-Im’s help indisputably goes to large corporations that can finance their own operations without putting it on the taxpay... Read More »