Rep. Nadler Statement on This Week House Passage of Key Legislative Priorities

WASHINGTON, July 3 -- Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, issued the following statement:

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) issued the following statement after the House's passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act, H.J. Res 90, the Protecting Your Credit Score Act, the Moving Forward Act, and the Paycheck Protection Program application extension.

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"This week, the House acted decisively to prioritize the interests of America's small businesses and establish key protections for consumers and patients. I was proud to vote for these critical pieces of legislation, which work to help our economy recover and expand needed protections to millions of Americans.

"For the first time in 10 years, the House voted on legislation to strengthen, improve, and expand the Affordable Care Act after years of Republican attacks and while President Trump tries to overturn the law and leave millions without insurance in the middle of a pandemic. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, which I voted for this week, will expand premium subsidies to lower monthly premiums for millions more families; create new incentives for states to expand Medicaid; lower prescription drug costs; reverse years of Republican efforts to undermine and repeal the law; and ensure more uninsured Americans can get affordable, comprehensive health insurance. This pandemic has highlighted how inhumane our health care system truly is - when millions of people lost their jobs, they lost their health insurance at the same moment. That is why I have supported Medicare for All for decades, and while we continue to work towards that goal, we have to ensure the Affordable Care Act remains strong and robust for the millions of Americans who have benefited from its protections.

"The pandemic also highlighted how dire this country's affordable housing crisis has become. As tens of millions of people lost their jobs and many more were furloughed or had hours cut, families fell behind on rent and mortgage payments. While the Federal government and states, including New York State, passed limited, short-term eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, millions of families across the country have fallen behind. Soon, these moratoriums will expire and we will see a massive wave of evictions and foreclosures; New York could see as many as 60,000 evictions. For that reason, I have been fighting to pass at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance and $75 billion in emergency homeowners assistance, and I was proud to support the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act this week. This legislation will provide more than $200 billion in renter, homeowner, and homelessness relief while shoring up the entire housing ecosystem. Stable, safe housing is directly linked to better health outcomes, and if we want to protect families from COVID-19, we need to keep them in their homes.

"I was also proud to support two bills to ensure that Americans have better access to their credit score and to stop the Trump Administration from undermining fair lending and banking laws. First, the House passed H.J.Res. 90, a resolution stopping the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency from implementing a rule that would undermine the Community Reinvestment Act and allow banks to engage in redlining, or discriminating against potential customers in their neighborhoods based on their racial or ethnic background. The former OCC Commissioner promulgated this rule without consultation from any other banking regulator and made it easier for some banks to discriminate. H.J.Res. 90 will stop that rule, and I am hopeful the Senate will take it up soon.

"Second, the House passed a long-overdue reform of credit reporting agencies in the Protecting Your Credit Score Act. This legislation would create a single online location for everyone to access unlimited free credit reports and scores, initiate and resolve disputes with credit reporting agencies, and easily place a credit freeze on their credit. These easy fixes will ensure that more people can track their credit score and stop fraud.

"Yesterday, the House passed the Moving Forward Act, a transformational bill that invests $1.5 not only in sustainable transportation infrastructure and expanded public transit and rail systems, but also clean drinking water, schools, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure in communities across the country. The legislation includes a nearly $500 billion investment to repair and rebuild our nation's crumbling roads, bridges, and rail systems, and over $70 billion in funding to jumpstart our country's clean energy economy, tackle environmental injustice, and create green jobs.

"With an estimated $23.6 billion going directly to New York - including over $12 billion in new federal highway funding - the Moving Forward Act will help New York City grow and transform. This landmark bill increases the level of funding for public transportation entities across New York City and provides funding to ensure that critically important local projects like the Gateway Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway move forward.

"I am proud that the Moving Forward Act provides more than $9 billion over the life of the bill for the Projects of National and Regional Significance (PNRS) Program, which I co-authored as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The PNRS program provides funding for large highway, transit, and rail projects that reduce congestion and cannot be funded through discretionary sources. The program has provided grants to important local transportation infrastructure projects, including the Gateway Tunnel Project and the Cross Harbor Freight Program, and will continue to be a vital source of funding for transportation projects that are important to New York City and the region. I am also proud that the bill includes an amendment I co-authored to authorize the Government Accountability Office to study the inconsistent reporting of alcohol-impaired driving arrest and citation results. I am grateful that several other provisions I championed were incorporated into the bill, including vital climate resiliency funding that will help protect New York City's coastlines from rising sea levels, over $100 billion to improve our nation's affordable housing infrastructure, and the creation of federal funding opportunities that will help transform underutilized and abandoned infrastructure into new urban landscapes.

"Finally, the House passed legislation that will extend the application of the small business loan Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to August 8, 2020. While this is a crucial step towards helping more small businesses rebuild and recover, far more must be done to repair the program's disastrous rollout and ensure that vulnerable small businesses are receiving the assistance they need. The Senate must pass the Heroes Act, which includes commonsense reforms for PPP and recapitalizes the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. The Treasury and SBA must also provide Congress with data on PPP loan applicants to ensure that assistance is reaching underserved small businesses.

"I am glad that the PPP application extension will be signed into law today. Now, the Senate must act swiftly and pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act, H.J. Res 90, the Protecting Your Credit Score Act, and the Moving Forward Act. Millions of Americans--and the economic wellbeing of our country--depend on it."