On June 4, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Housing Financial Services Committee, delivered an opening statement during the full committee hearing entitled “Oversight of Prudential Regulators,” addressing the present administration’s “aggressive” deregulatory campaign.

“Democrats do care, and we urge this committee and the president to focus on affordability,” Waters said. “It’s not just gas. Families are also being crushed by rising rents, higher utility bills, and skyrocketing grocery prices fueled by Trump’s failed economic policies. … When [the president’s] not ruining the economy, he’s busy tearing down the White House to build a billion-dollar ballroom, promoting Fight Night on the South Lawn, and trying to slap his name and picture on everything as if he were an idol to be worshipped. At the same time his administration is busy dismantling the agencies and safeguards that protect consumers, workers and small businesses.

“In fact, since returning to office, Trump has launched the most aggressive, the most deregulatory campaign we’ve seen,” she continued. “His administration has gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), undermined the independence of our central bank, and handed Wall Street, big banks, fintech firms, [artificial intelligence] companies and crypto bros pardons and the freedom to take risks with Americans’ money.

“The consequences are already hitting working families. A recent report found that Trump’s attacks on the CFPB alone have cost Americans nearly $19 billion in just one year. And while he has largely shut down the CFPB, Americans have filed more consumer complaints about predatory lending and other financial abuses in the past 14 months than the previous 14 years combined. … The prudential regulators here today have weakened megabank capital, stress testing and other requirements designed to prevent another financial crisis. They are rubber stamping bank mergers, rolling back the civil rights laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, and loosening guardrails for crypto and fintech businesses who act like banks but don’t want to be regulated as such.”

Waters berated Republicans for their lack of action and emphasized that committee Democrats “are focused on lowering costs for working families and ensuring Americans can access affordable mortgages, small business loans and financial products. We are fighting to support our community banks and credit unions and making sure consumers — not megabanks or other powerful corporations — come first.”