Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, a Member of the Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 5485 – The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2017:

“As a Member of the Financial Services Committee, I fight every day to improve consumer protections, promote liquidity in the marketplace and help ensure that our financial sector has the tools necessary to help create jobs and economic prosperity for all Americans.  Unfortunately, this legislation as drafted would not only undermine these efforts but would also seriously weaken critical consumer protections in Dodd-Frank, undercut the Affordable Care Act, and severely underfund critical financial regulatory agencies.

“Instead of working with Democrats to produce a bipartisan and sensible piece of legislation, my Republican colleagues have once again chosen to potentially place the stability of our financial markets at risk by pushing through legislation filled with harmful and unnecessary poison pill riders.

“Republicans refused to accept my common sense amendment which would have struck dangerous language from the underlying bill that prohibits funds from being used by the CFPB to enforce any regulations or rules with respect to payday loans, vehicle title loans, or other similar predatory loans. We need to strengthen consumer protections to fight against unfair and abusive lending practices, not weaken them.

“This partisan bill would lead our country in the wrong direction, and I will continue to oppose legislation that would dismantle consumer protections or disrupt our financial markets.  The American people deserve better.”

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