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Washington Policies Like Dodd-Frank Threaten U.S. Financial Stability Members of the Committee on Thursday questioned Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on the threats posed to America’s financial stability by misguided government policies, including the Dodd-Frank Act. The most recent annual report issued by the Dodd-Frank-created Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) identifies several threats to financial stability that are the direct result of these policies. However, “it conspicuously omits any references to specific government policies or agencies as helping cause the systemic risks it ... Read More »

Committee Questions HUD Secretary on Ineffectiveness of Agency After 50 Years The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was created 50 years ago to serve as a main weapon in the “War on Poverty” and the agency has received more than $1.6 trillion in annual appropriations over its lifetime. On Thursday, members of the Financial Services Committee questioned HUD Secretary Julian Castro on his agency’s failure to achieve measurable results. “By nearly every official measure, poverty and its consequences are as bad as they were 50 years ago. The poverty rate today is essentially unchan... Read More »

FACT: Two Russian firms targeted with U.S. sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were approved for more than $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer-subsidized financing from the Export-Import Bank. According to articles in the Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily, one of these Russian state-owned firms, Vnesheconombank, maintains a close business relationship with a major Russian arms dealer responsible for more than 80% of Russia’s weapon exports, including shipments to Syria. Read More »

Subcommittee Conducts Oversight on Hurricane Sandy Claims The need to reform the National Flood Insurance Program and allegations that Hurricane Sandy victims were cheated out of flood insurance claims due to bogus home inspection reports were the focus of a hearing on Tuesday held by the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), heard testimony from the FEMA official in charge of the nation’s flood insurance program. He testified that more than 2,000 court cases have been filed by Sandy victims, many of which allege insurance companies an... Read More »

CLICK HERE TO WATCH This morning the House Financial Services Committee released its latest video: Ex-Im By the Numbers. The 50-second video includes information about the $112 billion in taxpayer money Ex-Im puts at risk, that 99 percent of U.S. exports are successful without Ex-Im, and figures on the investigations, charges, arrests and amount of prison time associated with corruption at Ex-Im. The video is being released shortly before the committee’s third hearing of the year on the Export-Import Bank, which starts at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Read More »

Committee Passes 13 Jobs Bills The committee passed 13 bills on Wednesday to help Main Street businesses gain access to the capital they need to grow and create jobs. "We still have millions and millions of our fellow countrymen, hardworking moderate-income taxpayers, who find themselves with stagnant to lower paychecks; bank accounts that are less than before the great economic crisis -- and they need more jobs, better jobs, and you can’t have more and better jobs without more and better capital formation,” said Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). By passing the JOBS Act in 2012, Congress took an... Read More »

FACT: 10 large corporations receive nearly two-thirds of Ex-Im’s financial assistance. Read More »

FACT: Nearly 99% of U.S. exports are financed without Ex-Im. Read More »

False Narrative of Financial Crisis Led to Wrong Remedy: D0dd-Frank The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), heard from witnesses at a hearing on Wednesday that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by bad government policies and regulatory incompetence, not a “lack of regulations” or “market failure.” Washington’s inaccurate diagnosis of the causes led to the wrong response: the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank Act and its burdensome regulations. As a consequence of hastily enacting Dodd-Frank, Washington has piled on more regulations that are smothering community... Read More »

FACT: While Ex-Im claims it is needed to fight subsidies from foreign competitors, just a third of Ex-Im transactions are used for this purpose – according to Ex-Im. Read More »