The budget for the balance of the fiscal year, the “Continuing Resolution” in Washington talk, is worse than anyone could have imagined.  Click here to hear to my remarks on the floor.

In addition to cutting every program that helps working and middle-class families, like public education and job training, the budget guts the needed funding for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB will protect consumers from the gouging that has lurked in legalese in tiny print of mortgages, credit card contracts, and overdraft agreements written by banks’ lawyers.  

One Republican, Tom Price from Georgia, said that the CFPB would prevent “consumer choice.” I couldn’t let that pass- see my response here.  

“Servicing” mortgages is big, big business. The four biggest banks—Citi, BofA, Chase and Wells—service about two-thirds of the mortgages outstanding. But somehow they overlooked a law on the books continuously since the First World War that prohibits foreclosing on deployed service members. Click here to see me question the VP of JP Morgan Chase.

The Federal Reserve Board is conducting a new round of “stress tests” on the biggest banks. That’s a good thing.  But they sound like Judge Roy Bean (we’re going to give the man a fair trial, and then we’re going to hang him) on what they expect from the tests. They expect they’ll let the biggest banks pay bigger dividends and buy back stock, reducing the capital that cushions banks against economic shocks. I’m not convinced that’s such a good idea. I may be tilting at windmills, but some windmills just need tilting at.
                                        Sincerely,
                                        Brad Miller