Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) delivered remarks on the House floor in support of a resolution that would block efforts by the Trump administration to weaken the Community Reinvestment Act, landmark civil rights legislation enacted to combat discriminatory redlining and require banks and financial institutions to invest and serve low-income and historically marginalized communities.

Her remarks, as prepared for delivery, are available below.

Transcript: Rep. Pressley’s Remarks on Resolution to Protect Nation’s Anti-Redlining Law

June 26, 2020

*As Prepared for Delivery*

I rise today in support of this critical resolution, reversing a rule tainted by conflicts of interest and callous disregard for the communities most affected.

As hundreds of thousands take to the streets, as the cries for a reckoning with this nation’s past and present grow louder, this administration believes that the future is further deregulation.

Today we reject the Administration’s position that it is banks that are deserving of our time and sympathy as further relief funding is denied to millions of struggling families.

There is no separating the history of banking from the history of racism in this country.

Wall Street, our nation’s financial capital, is named after a structure erected by enslaved people and then served as a site where they were bought and sold.

Today, we have predatory lenders set up in Black communities, where systems of oppression ensure a steady stream of customers.

Communities that banks have decided are simply not worth their time or their business.

The Community Reinvestment Act reflects and is a direct response to this history and aims to reverse course.

I urge all of my colleagues to acknowledge the decades of divestment from our communities and support this crucial Civil Rights legislation.

# # #