Expressing the sense of Congress that financial institutions and other entities should work proactively with their customers affected by the shutdown of the Federal Government who may be facing short-term financial hardship and long-term damage to their creditworthiness through no fault of their own.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 77) expressing the sense of Congress that financial institutions and other companies should work proactively with their customers affected by the shutdown of the Federal Government who may be facing short-term financial hardship and long-term damage to their creditworthiness through no fault of their own, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, as amended. President Trump's historic 35-day shutdown of the Federal Government has had a deeply harmful impact on millions of Americans and the U.S. economy.

While this shutdown recently came to an end, we must not forget the recovery has just begun for a wide range of affected consumers, including Federal employees, contractors, small businesses, and other individuals.

Many of those people will not receive back pay. Many of them have various financial obligations, like a mortgage, or a student loan payment that they may have missed. However, they did not cause the shutdown and should not suffer any negative consequences from it.

Financial institutions and other entities, like landlords and consumer reporting agencies, can play a key role in helping these innocent people. Given the financial hardship and emotional distress these consumers face, through no fault of their own, I introduced H. Res. 77 to send a strong message to the financial industry that they should do what they can to help these innocent consumers.

Specifically, the resolution expresses the sense of Congress that financial institutions and other entities should work proactively to help all consumers affected by the shutdown. This includes waiving fees, ceasing evictions and foreclosures, and otherwise providing forbearance for any affected consumer, as well as taking steps to ensure their creditworthiness is not impaired because of the shutdown.

Financial regulators agree that it is appropriate for financial institutions to offer prudent accommodations to help their affected customers. On January 10, I wrote to the regulators to encourage them to provide public guidance to financial institutions to underscore they could affirmatively make prudent workout arrangements consistent with safety and soundness without fear of being subject to examiner criticisms. I am glad that they made such a statement the very next day.

On January 18, I wrote a letter to various financial services trade organizations, as well as the three largest credit reporting agencies, to encourage their institutions and member companies to take all prudent and appropriate actions, including those outlined in the regulators interagency statement, to help any consumer who may be affected by the shutdown.

While I appreciate that many financial institutions have already announced various accommodations for affected consumers, I believe it is important that there be a robust effort by all financial institutions, consumer reporting agencies, and others to do what they can to help in the weeks and months to come which H. Res. 77 seeks to encourage.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 77, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), who is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of the Small Business Committee.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution is intended not only to help Federal employees as such, but contractors, small businesses, and others that are connected to government in ways that you may not be able to absolutely identify here. You may have folks who are consultants who are not considered contractors. You may have others who will be affected by this who maybe had a contract with the Federal Government that is now in litigation that has to be dealt with.

That is what we are intending to do, not just have a blanket, blanket, blanket, but some connection to the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, let me say this: I know that we all want to help all of those who have been affected by the shutdown, and so I hope I was able to clarify that, so that people can help the constituents in their districts even in ways they may not have understood.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lawson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, this shutdown has inflicted tremendous harm on consumers and the U.S. economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the initial cost for the recent shutdown is more than $11 billion and wrote: ``Among those who experienced the

largest and most direct negative effects are Federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income. . . . And people who lost income and consequently borrowed money during the shutdown will see an increase in expenses as they pay interest on that debt.''

I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that it would be unfair if these innocent consumers were to suffer any negative consequences from the shutdown and that financial institutions and others should do what they can to help.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to try and give some comfort to those who think that maybe there are individuals who are not federally connected who would be getting help with this kind of approach, but that is absolutely not true. I could not list every possible way, but I am reminded that my husband was an Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. I am reminded of the families who were there. I am reminded of the children whose education we paid for while they were in that country, and the education of other families of ambassadors and diplomats for whom the Federal Government pays. We would not want to not reimburse for the education of our children in foreign countries, et cetera. So there are many ways that people who are connected to the Federal Government are impacted by this.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to Mr. McHenry: Thank you so very much for your support.

Again, this is a fine example of how both sides of the aisle can agree on a commonsense resolution that will help all those who have been impacted by this shutdown.

I am very pleased to have the support of Mr. McHenry. We have been trying desperately in the work that we do, as we began this session of Congress, to show that you can work cooperatively with both sides of the aisle working together on a bill, resolution, legislation, et cetera, that really does support and help our families and all the people in the country who are looking to us for support and leadership.

Again, I thank Mr. McHenry, and I thank all the Members on the opposite side of the aisle who get this and who understand it and whose contractors and others are on them saying: What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

This is our effort, and I appreciate their support.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the 800,000 Federal employees impacted by the partial government shutdown and express my sincere agreement that banks and Federal regulators should do the compassionate and the sensible thing, to support customers in need of assistance.

Mr. Speaker, whether it was a missed credit card payment or an unexpected medical expense, many furloughed Federal employees have faced economic hardships over the last 35 days, through no fault of their own. A string of dead-end and dead-on-arrival bills and nonstarter negotiations thrust hardworking Federal employees into the middle of a political fight, all over commonsense border security measures that I support, and that many Democrats have supported previously.

Our only course of action at that time and now is to try and provide some relief to those who are in need, and most importantly, find a solution to ensure that the government doesn't shut down again on February 15. But those are larger political issues, and we are trying to be of substance as to what we can do to be of assistance to those who were affected by the government shutdown within our committee of jurisdiction, the Financial Services Committee.

I appreciate Chairwoman Waters' efforts to provide support for hardworking Federal employees by introducing this resolution and encouraging banks to assist their customers in need.

Thankfully, many financial institutions are already doing exactly what is suggested in this resolution, and that, as Chairwoman Waters said in her statement, is at the urging of Members of Congress, but also their understanding of the needs in their communities, like waiving late fees for furloughed employees, or the other over 100 banks that took it upon themselves for loan modifications and payment deadline extension, payroll advances, low-rate and zero-rate loans, as well as other accommodations, and those are wonderful things, positive things.

Unfortunately, we now find ourselves in a situation where the financial regulatory regime has left banks trying their best under a cloud of uncertainty on how regulators will react to their efforts during the government shutdown.

While I agree with my colleague across the aisle that we should encourage banks to work more proactively with customers affected in the shutdown, we must also encourage our financial regulators to provide clarity to our financial institutions that they are permitted to provide that type of relief.

I have no doubt this issue will be a part of a larger conversation I hope that we can have on the Financial Services Committee about what regulators are doing to help individual taxpayers and also what they are doing that hurts the American people as well.

Mr. Speaker, I think this is a good bill that I encourage my colleagues to support.

I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.

Reclaiming my time, I did not write the legislation. The intention here is the encouragement of Federal regulators to take a new look. I think that is the broad understanding of what this resolution gets to. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mooney).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this House resolution. I think this resolution truly expresses the sense of Congress that we should provide relief that, voluntarily, over 100 financial institutions have already committed to do publicly over the course of the shutdown. But I think it shows that we are a compassionate group of folks here in the House of Representatives and that we want to be sensible in every way possible, even in the midst of these major political fights that do occur from time to time, perhaps, here on this House floor.

Those disagreements notwithstanding, what we want to do is work in a proactive way and in a bipartisan way to convey to the public that there are sensible things that we are about, and that Republicans and Democrats still can get things done here on the House floor, here doing the people's business and the people's work.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support Chairwoman Waters' resolution here today, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, due to a scheduled medical procedure, I was physically absent from the House of Representatives from January 10, 2019 to February 5, 2019. During that time, I missed 44 recorded votes. Had I been present for those votes, I would have voted: on Roll Call No. 22 on the Republican Motion to Recommit on H.R. 267, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 23 on the Passage of H.R. 267, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 24 on the Republican Motion to Recommit on H.R. 265, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 25 on the Passage of H.R. 265, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 26 on the Republican Motion to Recommit on H.R. 266, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 27 on the Passage of H.R. 266, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 28 on the Passage of S. 24, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 29 on the Passage of H.R. 221, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 30 on the Passage of H.R. 116, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 31 on the Passage of H.J. Res. 27, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 32 on the Passage of H. Res. 41, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 33 on the Passage of H.R. 135, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 34 on Ordering the Previous Question on H. Res. 43, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 35 on the Adoption of H. Res. 43, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 36 on the Passage of H.R. 190, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 37 on the Passage of Amendment No. 2 offered by Mr. McGovern (D- MA), I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 38 on Ordering the Republican Motion to Recommit, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 39 on the Passage of H.R. 268, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 40 on the Adoption of H. Res. 52, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 41 on the Passage of H.R. 150, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 42 on the Passage of H.J. Res. 30, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 43 on Republican Motion to Recommit, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 44 on the Passage of H.R. 676, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 45 on the Passage of H.R. 328, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 46 on the Passage of H.J. Res 28, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 47 on the Passage of H. Res. 61, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 48 on the Republican Motion to Recommit, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 49 on the Passage of H.R. 648, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 50 on the Republican Motion to Recommit, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 51 on the Passage of H.J. Res. 31, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 52 on the Passage of H.R. 624, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 53 on the Passage of H.R. 502, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 54 on Approving of the Speaker's Journal, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 55 on the Motion to Adjourn, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 56 on the Passage of H.R. 428, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 57 on the Passage of H.R. 449, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 58 on the Passage of H.R. 769, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 59 on the Motion to Table the Motion to Reconsider H. Res. 77, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 60 on Ordering the Previous Question on H. Res. 87, I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 61 on the Passage of H. Res. 87, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 62 on the Passage of Amendment No. 3 offered by Mrs. Trahan (D-MA), I would have voted ``Nay;'' on Roll Call No. 63 on the Republican Motion to Recommit, I would have voted ``Yea;'' on Roll Call No. 64 on the Passage of H.R. 790, I would have voted ``Nay;'' and on Roll Call No. 65 on the Passage of H. Res. 79, I would have voted ``Nay.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman, Maxine Waters, and the ranking member, Mr. McHenry, for this important resolution.

Last week, Democrats stood united and ended the longest government shutdown in history. We should be clear: This shutdown was caused solely by President Trump's personal obsession with the border wall.

Roughly 800,000 Federal workers were either furloughed or forced to work without pay. More than 1 million contractors were forced to miss multiple paychecks.

Now, Donald Trump may not relate to this, but for these workers, this means bills piling up. It means choosing between putting gasoline in your car or groceries in your refrigerator.

Throughout the shutdown, my office was in contact with several financial institutions and companies that were offering forbearance options, waiving late fees, and providing short-term, no-interest loans for affected workers. That is admirable, and I thank them.

However, the media also reported on numerous workers who were forced to take out personal loans and cash advances on credit cards, or who even turned to predatory payday loans to make ends meet.

For example, NBC News recently reported on one company offering personal installment loans that had seen an uptick in customers looking to use their products. It is perhaps no coincidence that this uptick coincided with a nearly 19 percent rise in the company's stock since the shutdown began.

This is unconscionable. Financial institutions and companies should not be preying on Federal employees or contractors who went nearly a month without pay. Instead, they should be working with those affected to get them back on track and rebuild their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chair Waters for offering this important resolution to further that goal, and I urge all my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Actually, Mr. Speaker, I have a point of clarification for the chairman.

Is this bill affecting all furloughed Federal workers, anyone furloughed, or anyone affected by the furlough in any way? Any consumer, any American that is affected?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman.

Mr. Speaker, in West Virginia's Second District, we have a lot of Federal workers and contractors who are affected.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for clarifying that.

Of course, there are a lot of folks in my district who are affected by the shutdown and also affected indirectly because they are contractors and such. I have had them approach me over the last few weeks, wondering if their backlogged projects were going to get funded. It is important to clarify that.

Of course, we should backpay people, and the good, hardworking Americans who make this country go around need to get paid.

I understand a little bit of an obsession on the other side against a border wall that was mentioned by the previous speaker, when this is really about how government should function and appropriate funds in the appropriate way, and the power of the purse. Frankly, getting bills through the House and the Senate has become quite a problem, particularly with the other Chamber, which doesn't seem to pass anything and then wants us to do just whatever the Senate does.

We have a lot of dysfunction, particularly on the other side, and that is what has cost the workers, not this wall. The wall is something the President said he would do. It is not the wall; it is the dysfunction of passing bills around here that has caused these problems.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the leader for the extra minute.