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Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to follow my friend and colleague from New Jersey, whom I salute for his passion and his eloquence. And thank you to Senator Warren for her leadership in bringing us together today and to my colleagues who are rising today in opposition to S.J. Res. 18, which seeks to undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's overdraft fee rule.

Now let's be very clear: This overdraft rule never should have been necessary. If big banks were doing the right thing and playing fair with their customers, this rule would never have been necessary. Taking that fee from $35 to $5 simply reflects what the possible cost is of overdrafts rather than banks, in effect, making money on overdrafts, which are commonly the result of people not having enough money in their bank account. And that is commonly the result of people being poorer than they want to be.

I suspect that most of this administration hasn't had an overdraft fee recently. I am guessing--I think it is an educated guess--that Elon Musk has not had an overdraft fee recently.

Overdrafts hit people who are living paycheck to paycheck, people who are at the bottom rung of our economic order through no fault of their own--often the result of discrimination and denial of rights that others are fortunate to have.

But put aside the inequities of this rule or the overdraft practices that it tries to ameliorate, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau is, in effect, the watchdog or the top cop in the beat of preventing consumers from being scammed as they are by overdraft fees.

It is under attack by the Trump administration. It has returned $21 billion to consumers. And most relevant to our conversation here today, lowering overdraft fees from $35 to $5 would save households $5 billion annually. That is $5 billion that goes into our economy rather than into the coffers of banks that have over $10 billion in assets and who trick people into paying those excessive overdraft fees; and they earn profit from the most vulnerable families in this country.

I want to focus on one group in particular who are particularly vulnerable--and I say it as a member of the Armed Services Committee and the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. Servicemembers and their families in particular have a higher stake in this rule prohibiting exploitive overdraft fees.

And the reason is--despicably, disgustingly--servicemembers are often targeted by bad actors and financial institutions for abusive and predatory practices like overdraft fees or that result in overdraft fees.

A Department of Defense survey revealed that 10 percent of Active- Duty and Reserve servicemembers paid overdraft fees two or more times in the past year, which is more than the average American. Let me just repeat: Two or more times in 1 year, they paid overdraft fees. My guess is that most Members of this Chamber haven't paid overdraft fees in years and years, maybe not since you were in college or law school, graduate school.

Two or more times, our servicemen and -women have been exploited by these banks in charging fees for overdraft.

For years, servicemembers across the country have filed complaints with the CFPB over these unfair and deceptive practices, like skyrocketing fees.

Just one example: A servicemember in Connecticut filed a claim with the CFPB in 2018 about Wells Fargo's predatory overdraft practices. He reported he had an overdraft protection turned off his account, but Wells Fargo still allowed autopayments to be taken out and then charged $35 rather than denying the payments for lack of funds.

These overdrafts should have been denied, but instead, they went through and cost this servicemember over $60 in unwanted fees.

Now, I know to a lot of Members of this body, 60 bucks is no big deal. Anybody familiar with the young enlisted men in our U.S. military today who live, literally, paycheck to paycheck knows that $60 may be the difference between having the means to get home on leave. It may be the difference between enjoying a weekend on leave.

So the $60 in unwarranted fees that that servicemember paid was a big deal to him. But today, the Republicans unfortunately are shamefully doing the Trump administration's bidding. They are stripping crucial protection away from working American families and our military members, and it is simply and plainly a gift. It is a gift to Big Bank.

We can speculate on what the motives are. They are big banks. They contribute a lot of money to campaigns. But every attack on the CFPB, including this CRA, is an attack on consumer protection, commonsense safeguards that make sure that Americans can avoid being exploited by big and powerful institutions.

Overturning the overdraft rule is yet another giveaway to these big banks and the billionaires who control and run and own them.

I have said before but it bears repeating: President Trump will always help his billionaire friends at the cost of helping you.

Today, I urge my colleagues to vote against this attack on the CFPB. Vote no on S.J. Res. 18.

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