2004 and 2003 Press Releases

2004 Press Releases

12/16/2004
Rep. Barney Frank: Lack of Federal Consumer Protections on Popular Gift Cards Highlights Problem with OCC Rule
WASHINGTON--Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) is decrying federal bank regulators' refusal to fix a large crack in consumer protection laws that could leave millions of Americans buying gift cards this holiday season open to hidden fees that can quickly diminish the value of the cards. (more)

11/10/2004
Barney Frank Withdraws Support for Increased OFHEO Funding
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today wrote a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee withdrawing his support, expressed earlier this year, for an increased appropriation for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). (more)

10/29/2004
Rep. Frank Asks OFHEO to Authorize Release of HUD Inspector General Report
House Financial Services Committee senior Democrat Barney Frank today wrote to the Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) to request that relevant OFHEO employees provide appropriate waivers to allow release of the report prepared by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General regarding OFHEO's investigation of Fannie Mae. (more)

10/22/2004
Rep. Frank Urges Release of HUD Inspector General Report
U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, sent the attached letters this week, urging the public release of a recent report prepared by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General regarding the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's investigation of Fannie Mae. (more)

10/07/2004
Congressman Frank Introduces Preservation of Federalism in Banking Act, H.R. 5251 (more)

09/22/2004
Congressmen Frank and Kanjorski Ask That OFHEO Report Be Made Public
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee and Rep. Paul Kanjorski, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises today sent a letter to Armando Falcon, Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight asking him to immediately release a report on accounting practices and policies at Fannie Mae. (more)

08/03/2004
Tripartisan Group Seeks Movement on Legislation to Overturn OCC's Preemption and Visitorial Regulations
WASHINGTON -- A tripartisan group of Members of the House Financial Services Committee recently urged the chairman of the committee to address the expansion of power by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and to allow Members the opportunity to fully debate and vote on the issue. (more)

06/29/04
House Democrats Urge the President to Focus on Affordable Housing in GSE Legislation
WASHINGTON - Seventy-six Democratic Members of the U.S House of Representatives today urged President George W. Bush to join them in pressing the housing-related Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) to beef up their affordable housing efforts. (more)

06/25/04
Bill Introduced to Preserve Housing for More Than 100,000 Families
WASHINGTON--House Financial Services Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) Thursday introduced a bill that would help stave off an emerging problem that could cause more than 100,000 low-income families to lose their affordable housing by 2013. Just over half of the Committee's Democratic caucus, including Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have also signed on as cosponsors. (more)

06/04/2004
International Remittance Services Qualify for CRA Credit: Committee Members Welcome Bank Regulators' Agreement on Remittances
WASHINGTON--Several Democratic Members of the House Financial Services Committee today welcomed federal banking regulators' agreement that financial institutions should receive Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) credit for offering international remittance services. (more)

05/20/2004
Committee Members Decry HUD Secretary's Comments on the Poor
WASHINGTON--Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, and committee members Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Michael Capuano (D-MA) today expressed their dismay at remarks made by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson during a hearing before the committee. (more)

05/04/2004
Rep. Frank Introduces Bill to Protect Low-Income Families and Ensure Full Funding for the Section 8 Program
WASHINGTON--House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today announced the introduction of legislation to clarify the intent of language in Fiscal Year 2004 appropriations concerning the Section 8 housing voucher program. (more)

04/22/2004
Rep. Barney Frank Introduces Bill to Remove the Perverse Incentive Hidden in Stock Options
WASHINGTON-- House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) today introduced legislation that would prevent corporate executives from profiting on the exercise of stock options when shareholders are suffering losses. (more)

04/16/2004
Massachusetts Congressmen and Senators Condemn HUD's Latest Effort to Gut Housing Voucher Program 
WASHINGTON- Rep. Barney Frank today joined other federal legislators from Massachusetts in decrying action by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that would create a $3 million budget shortfall for the state's housing authority and jeopardize housing for approximately 2,000 people in the state. (more)

04/07/2004
Committee Members Laud Treasury Effort on Remittances
WASHINGTON-Several Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee recently expressed support for efforts by the U.S. Treasury Department to make international remittances more affordable and accessible for U.S consumers. (more)

02/24/2004
Committee to Hold Hearings on Mortgage Maturities Described in GAO Report
WASHINGTON--House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael G. Oxley (OH) and Ranking Member Barney Frank (MA) announced today that the Committee will hold hearings in the wake of a General Accounting Office (GAO) report released yesterday about an emerging problem that could affect more than 100,000 low-income families and their affordable housing by 2013. (more)

02/12/2004
Committee Democrats Urge Delay in
OCC Preemption Rule
WASHINGTON-A sizable portion of the Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee, led by Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA), Wednesday pressed the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to postpone the effective date of its controversial preemption rule. (more)

01/21/2004
Reps. Frank and Sanders Call for Congressional Hearings on CRA Proposal
WASHINGTON - House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the Ranking Member of the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee today called for a hearing into proposed changes to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. (more)

2003 Press Releases

12/10/2003
Rep. Barney Frank Hails Passage of Bill Encouraging Housing Production in Massachusetts
WASHINGTON-Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, enthusiastically welcomed the recent passage of a bill that allows the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to raise loan limits for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured multi-family unit construction in high-cost metropolitan areas such as Eastern Massachusetts.  (more)

11/20/2003
House Approves Revision of Flood Insurance Program
WASHINGTON-The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation that would reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and separately agreed to a three month extension of the current program to allow the Senate to take up the bill early next year. (more)

11/05/2003
Frank Decries Stalled Action on Flood Insurance Reform
WASHINGTON--Congressman Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today expressed his extreme disappointment at Congress' failure to move swiftly to enact much-needed reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). (more)

11/03/2003
Committee Democrats Urge Republican Lawmaker to Let State Securities Officials Do Their Jobs
WASHINGTON - Thirty-two House Financial Services Committee Democrats, led by Ranking Member Barney Frank (D-MA), today called for the removal from pending legislation of a provision impeding states' efforts to punish securities firms that defraud investors. (more)

10/28/2003
Frank Responds to FleetBoston Takeover by Bank of America
WASHINGTON--Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) today said that he will work as hard as possible to make sure that the legitimate interests of borrowers, housing applicants, charities and other Massachusetts groups do not suffer because of the takeover of FleetBoston Financial Corp. by Bank of America Corp. (more)

10/1/2003
Committee Examines Reducing Consumers' Costs for Sending Money Abroad
WASHINGTON--The House Financial Services Committee Wednesday heard testimony on ways to make the remittance industry more affordable and accessible to the millions of consumers, including foreign-born workers, who send tens of billions of dollars to relatives and friends abroad. (more)

9/24/2003
Rep. Frank Salutes Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Members of the Financial Services Committee
WASHINGTON-U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee senior Democratic Barney Frank (D-MA) Wednesday thanked and congratulated Committee members who belong to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) for their service and accomplishments during the 108^th Congress.  (more)

9/11/2003
Rep. Barney Frank Notes Passage of Fair Credit Bill
WASHINGTON--The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation that provides consumers the strongest protections to date against the sharing of their sensitive medical information and identity theft while also giving consumers more tools to dispute and correct wrong information in their credit reports. (more)

7/28/2003
Committee Democrats Decry Odious Work Requirement
WASHINGTON--Partisan politics came to the fore last week as the House Financial Services Committee rejected along party lines efforts to remove discriminatory and unnecessary language in housing legislation that becomes effective on July 31. The language forces public housing residents to meet a community service requirement or risk eviction from their homes. (more)

7/14/2003
Statement from Rep. Barney Frank on Upcoming Testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan
The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled Tuesday, July 15, to hear testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on monetary policy and the status of the economy. (more)

07/10/2003
Frank and Galvin Blast Attempts to Hijack States' Efforts to Protect Investors
WASHINGTON-- Rep. Barney Frank, Ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin today strongly condemned a legislative provision voted out of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises. The provision, contained in the Securities Fraud Deterrence and Investor Restitution Act of 2003 (H.R 2179), would sharply curtail states' ability to take strong enforcement actions against Wall Street firms that defraud investors.(more)

06/25/2003
Financial Services Committee Democrats Call for Simplified Privacy Notices
WASHINGTON--Twenty-seven Democratic and Independent members of the House Financial Services Committee today called for the nation's banking regulators to begin a process that will lead to the creation of simplified short-form privacy notices. (more)