Madam President, I move proceed to Calendar No. 388, S.J. Res. 132. Madam President, it is not enough that President Trump has injected chaos and inflation into the economy with his illegal tariffs,…
Madam President, I move proceed to Calendar No. 388, S.J. Res. 132.
Madam President, it is not enough that President Trump has injected chaos and inflation into the economy with his illegal tariffs, unauthorized war, and his so-called Big Beautiful Bill. He is also stripping protections for average Americans against being defrauded and scammed out of their money.
Case in point, through Russell Vought, who is moonlighting as the Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the CFPB, Trump is dismantling the Military Lending Act or MLA. He has fired the CFPB staff responsible for enforcing this law, dismissing active cases against lenders for defrauding and scamming the troops, and refusing to supervise financial companies to make sure they comply with the Military Lending Act.
Back in 2006, the Senate passed the Military Lending Act by unanimous consent. I strongly support this law because as a former military officer, I have seen how servicemembers have had their lives and careers ruined by predatory lending.
And in 2010, the Senate strengthened this law again in a bipartisan fashion--completely bipartisan--by giving the CFPB powerful supervision and enforcement authority.
Since then, the CFPB has returned $360 million to servicemembers and veterans. They have won major cases for violations of the MLA, and as result, corrected the behavior of many predatory lenders.
But Mr. Vought is unilaterally defanging this Agency--taking it apart. Besides removing staff, he has issued guidance stripping the Agency of its authority to supervise nonbank lenders for compliance with the MLA.
Who are these nonbank lenders? These are the payday lenders who set up shop outside military bases and target young servicemembers with loans
that leave them with huge debts and exorbitant interest payments that can be in some cases in the triple digits.
Mr. Vought wants to give these lenders free rein to go after servicemembers to take away their well-earned compensation, and in many cases--I have seen it personally--to put them in a financial spiral that pushes them out of the service and into a very, very difficult and challenging life.
Today, this Senate can go on record, as it has in the past, in a very strong bipartisan vote to rescind Mr. Vought's guidance and protect our servicemembers.
Now, every one of us goes back home and gets with the veterans groups and says: We owe you more than we can pay you. We respect what you have done.
And those servicemen who are serving today in the Persian Gulf, they have to get the support they need, and frankly, they don't get it.
It is an easy choice: the troops or Russell Vought's attempt to suppress these troops who are serving us.
And I would urge passage of this proposal.
I ask for the yeas and nays.
Vote on Motion to Proceed
