House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) have introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule promulgated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The OCC finalized the rule a day before Comptroller Joseph Otting announced his resignation.
In a release, Waters said the “harmful” CRA rule was finished in haste before Otting’s departure.
“When then-Comptroller Otting recently rushed out a harmful rule gutting the Community Reinvestment Act, I made it clear that Congress would not let the rule stand,” Waters said in a statement. “Today, I and Congressman Meeks have introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the OCC’s rule. Otting recklessly pushed ahead with his rule, which will result in disinvestment in many low- and moderate-income communities, despite the Federal Reserve and the FDIC – the other regulatory agencies responsible for enforcing CRA – declining to join in the rulemaking.”
The Congressional Review Act process allows Congress, within 60 days of meeting since the rule was reported to Congress or published in the Federal Register, to reject implementation by a majority vote in each chamber, and the president’s signature.
The process of reversing regulations has increased since President Donald Trump was elected, notably in the reversal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s arbitration rule in November 2017.
“The Community Reinvestment Act is an essential law that was put in place to prevent redlining and to require banks to invest and lend responsibly in the communities where they are chartered,” Waters stated. “It is completely unacceptable for the OCC to use the cover of a pandemic to rush out a rule that will be harmful to communities that are already suffering during this crisis. This resolution we introduced today will right that wrong.”
Meeks said he and Waters had been “steadfast” that any reforms to the act must remain true to the civil rights roots of the law.
“My office conducted and published an extensive study of bank branch distribution in Queens, finding that predominantly black and Hispanic ZIP codes have seven times fewer bank branches than non-minority zip codes, even when adjusting for income,” Meeks said in a statement. “The Financial Services Committee has held a series of hearings on modern-day redlining, and the critical need for a stronger CRA, supported by methodical data analysis, and reflecting the recommendations of community organizations. Comptroller Otting and the OCC have failed systematically to achieve this, and put forward a rushed, incomplete rule that will harm the very communities the CRA is meant to support.”