Mr President the
uh the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau we call it the the
CF
PB has struck a
again it has made another bad
decision this by an agency that has
become famous for bad decisions
here's what's going on Mr President you
remember the Dodd Frank Act of course
which this Congress
passed uh after the uh Financial
meltdown in 20078 and
N there was a section in The Dodd Frank
act called section 1071 fairly
innocuous Congress
directed um certain information to be
collected
about small business loans we were
curious about small business lending in
America and so we directed in this
section
1071 we directed certain covered
financial
institutions I'll call them small Banks
because most business loans to small
business people come from the small
Banks we directed small Banks to start
collecting information about about their
loans to small business people because
we wanted to know see if see if we could
do something to make the Ser their
services more
efficient and we the Congress asked that
13 pieces of information be collected
the sort of the sort of stuff Mr
President that that you would uh you you
would imagine very routine stuff like
you know what was the date of the loan
small business loan um how much was the
loan that's sort of
thing well the
cfpb has taken our
work and
totally perverted
it the cfpb has promulgated a
rule that totally perverts Our intention
in section
1071 uh of the dodf Frank ACT first we
intended only small businesses to be
covered in providing this
information now if you look at the
definition of a small business which is
U uh most people use the definition that
has been put
out by the national Federation of
Independent businesses that's uh the
nfib nfib says the small business is a
small business that a business that has
10 um a fewer people in sales of about a
half aill million dollar a year not
according to the
cfpb they want to cast The Net as far
and wide as they can their definition of
a small business um will almost double
that more than double that they say a
small business is a company with $5
million in revenue or less from the
previous fiscal year not $500,000 5
million so this is going to throw the
net of government much much wider than
Congress ever
intended but but the second and most
egregious thing that cfpb has
done they took our 13 pieces of
information that we asked for by
Congress and they have expanded it to
81 all of a sudden they want a
book
now here are some
examples of what the cfpb is going to
require small Banks to ask of small
business women and small businessmen
when they come to the bank and ask for a
loan the bank has to ask the small
business person how long it's been in
business that's
fair uh the bank has to ask the small
businesswoman or small businessman about
its annual
revenue that's
fair the bank but then it it it it gets
a little intrusive it gets a lot
intrusive the back the bank has to ask a
small business woman or small
businessman what their
races the bank has to ask the small
business
person about their ethnic
background the small bank has to ask the
small business person if he's a
male the bank has to ask the small
business person if he's a fe she's a
female should be obvious to many but
those questions have to be
asked the bank has to ask the small
business person if that person is a
lesbian the bank has to ask the small
business person if that person is
gay the bank has to ask that small
business person if that small business
person is
bisexual the small bank has to ask its
customer that small business business
person if that small business person is
transgender the bank according to the
cfpb has to ask that small business
person who is applying for a loan just
came in for a loan for the business if
that person is quote
queer the small bank has to ask that
small business person if the small
business person is interex
and not only does the bank have to ask
that those questions those question
private questions of the person from the
small business applying for the
loan the person applying for the loan
behalf of the small business has to
bring in every one of its
owners who own 25% or
more and the banks got to start
over with those people are you a m are
you a female what's your race tell me
about your e ethnic background are you a
lesbian are you gay are you bisexual are
you transgender are you quote queer are
you quote
interex give me a
break and then all of this information
that's collected this private
information has got to be sent to the
cfpb and they're going to put it on
their
website are you gay are you lesbian what
race are
you they're going to put it on their
website now the CFB cfpb says well it's
going to be institutional level data
just Topline data fields
boom you can you will be able to take
this dat particular if you're a small
Bank in a rural area and be able
to uh the snoops will be able to go on
that public website and find out who
identify small business people in their
Community how much money they're
borrowing how they answered the question
about whether they were gay how they
answered the question about whether they
were
interex incredibly private information
and
why why does the cfpb need this
information
well the truth is they don't but I'll
tell you why the
cfpb is setting these small business
people but also these small Banks up for
lawsuits that's exactly what they're
doing and what happens what happens if a
a small business person goes into the
bank and the small Banker
says listen I hate to have to ask you
this but cfpb says I have to ask you are
you
gay as that's anybody's
business and and and the small business
person says that's none of your
business and I'm not going to answer
that question I'm here for alone not to
talk about my private life what I do in
my privacy my bedroom with a consenting
adult is my opinion Mr banker and the
small Banker says you're right I'm sorry
I had to ask they make
me if the if the if if the the small
business person want won't answer the
question the small Banker can get in
trouble with the
cfpb what has the world come to and the
cfbb it had it doesn't care about the
cost you know what this is going to cost
to implement every year $400
million why and that doesn't even
include the cost of actually setting up
this program that'll be hundreds of
millions of dollars
more and it's not like the cfpb is
exactly a wizard when it comes to data
security as we it I mean yeah it's going
to be on their public website but in
terms of the granular information the
cfpb says oh don't worry we'll protect
it right like it protected it a few
months ago the personally identifiable
information of
256,000 consumers which was being held
by the cfpb
was
breached and you know what the cfpb did
they didn't tell anybody from two
months they acted like a rock only
Dumber we're not talking about Wizards
here wizards of financial data privacy
and security this Mr
President you know I hear it all the
time you probably hear it back in in
your state perhaps but I people tell me
all the time Kennedy what's wrong with
Washington DC why is common sense
illegal
there this
rule this rule what does the world come
to so my congressional re review act
request is to have the Senate tell the
cfpb that it is none of their
business none of their business
what a what what a what a private
American does with another private adult
American in the privacy of their
bedroom we are free to to so long as it
doesn't uh break any LA to express our
sexuality however we want to and it's
none of the
cfpb's
business
um and with that Mr President I
ask you are probably the least
productive member of your District Court
isn't that
right well I have not um considered
myself in those terms um Senator well
let me explain what I mean um you have
125 motions
pending that you've declined to
decide well well I'm just let me
finish that's more than any other
district judge in the entire seventh
circuit in
fact you rank seventh highest nationally
do you
not I I'm not familiar with those
statistics Senator Kennedy um you
haven't looked I did look and and
preparation for this hearing but I
didn't compare myself to others you
haven't seen that you ranked the seventh
the worst in the
country in terms of making decisions you
are the first to tell me this um and I
think for me I
I stress the quality of my decision
making and
uh as I explained I came on I was the
first um district judge to come on
during this Administration yeah but so
did so were all the others I mean um
they've been 68 District judges
confirmed in the 117th
Congress in terms of motions pending for
more than six months you ranked number
three you all came on at the same time
you all had the same problems with covid
you're the third worst you really think
of all the other District judges in the
seventh circuit you're the one that
ought to be
promoted based on this record
Senator this is something that I've
discussed with my fellow judges all many
of us new judges from not you said you'd
never looked at these statistics I I
haven't these particular statistics I
have I am not familiar with but in terms
of new judges both from the current
Administration and the former
Administration we are quite a collegial
um bunch and often time talk about the
pressures of a new judge and the way
reassignments work in our district which
is that you get for example 300 cases
yes ma'am I understand I'm familiar with
the procedure in federal court here's
what I'm trying to understand why is
your record so
bad well I don't view it that way
Senator when I um look at the quality of
my decision- making um you know the
feedback that I get from parties um of
course parties are not going to
criticize you they want you to rule in
their favor I understand Senator Kennedy
I me um that's just the way it works
help me
understand why you have such an abysmal
record in moving cases I mean it costs a
lot of money to
litigate and people are paying lawyers
and time is
money and and of all the district court
judges and you're in in in the seventh
circuit you're the worst
in terms of moving cases why do you
think you deserve to be promoted over
all of those
others so
Senator again I'm I'm not familiar with
the statistics but I stand by my record
and that I give parties what they need
um I think you know I am regularly in my
courtroom I am regularly issuing
decisions um I just came on at a very
difficult time where there was a backlog
in the courts so did everybody else let
me ask you um you when you were
partnering in your Law Firm you
volunteered to u to to uh to write a
brief on behalf of the Brady
Center you wrote the brief and this is
what you said you volunteered for this
you weren't being paid is that
right this was a pro bono case that one
of my partners brought in yes um you
said quote assault weapons may be banned
because they're extraordinarily
dangerous and are not appropriate for
legitimate self-defense purposes close
quote tell me what you meant by assault
weapons thank you Senator Kennedy just
to
clarify just to clarify there I was
local counsel um our supreme but you
wrote the brief tell me what you meant
by assault weapons Senator Kenny
actually I I did not write the brief um
the brief was written by um you signed
the brief though did correct I signed
the brief when you sign a brief you're
testifying to the court that everything
in it is is true right yes that and I I
so they're your words in terms of the
court right well I you're you're correct
Senator Kennedy I would never sign tell
me what you meant by assault weapons so
I I am not a gun expert and at the time
that brief I think was about 10 you were
given the court advice about say ban
assault weapons what is I'm just you
told the court you were you were you
were an expert just tell me what you
wanted to
ban Senator sitting here today um as I
said I did not write that brief I was
local counil the brief I understand at
at the time tell me what you wanted to
ban that's all I'm I'm want to know
judge I I don't remember the exact
definition of assault weapons in the the
ordinance that was at issue so you
submitted a
brief to the to to to an appellant brief
you signed it and you don't know what
and you said abolish assault weapons and
you don't know what you wanted them to
abolish Senator at the time that I
signed the brief I I read the brief um
because the our Supreme Court required
someone an Illinois Bar member to sign
the brief I was not responsible for
researching the content you were
responsible for the brief you sign
absolutely absolutely and sitting here
today I do not remember the
characteristics of of that were that
were cited in the ordinance for the
assault weapons ban it's not an area of
practice that I have um specialized in
I'm sure 10 years ago I I would I could
have answered your question sitting here
today you want you think you deserve to
be
promoted record Senator I I stand by my
record I stand by my record