Rep. Maloney started her career as an ESL *English as a Second Language) teacher in East Harlem. When her program was cut, her colleagues elected her as their advocate to restore funding - and she succeeded, setting an example that has extended throughout her career, first working with the NYC Department of Education and then as a legislative staffer in Albany. After gaining that experience, in 1982 she ran a long-shot challenge to an incumbent City Council Member in a district that spanned East Harlem, South Bronx, Manhattan Valley, and Carnegie Hill - and she won an improbably upset.
Financial Services is a key industry for the New York City economy and one of the biggest job creators in the region. As the senior New York Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Congresswoman Maloney believes one of her chief tasks is to maintain the preeminence of New York City as the world’s financial center. Since coming to Congress, she has advocated for modernization of financial services regulation, state-of-the-art consumer protection and vigilant oversight of the safety-and-soundness of the banking sector. She is committed to defending the health of our financial institutions so that they can lead our economic recovery.
Congresswoman Maloney serves as a member of two subcommittees. She is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises and also serves on the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.
Safety and Soundness: As a representative for the market center of the world, Congresswoman Maloney takes her responsibility of financial services regulation very seriously. She believes there is a need for the financial services sector to comply with regulation that protects the consumer and prevents market instability. At the same time, she is careful to make sure this regulation does not inadvertently burden small companies and our economy. With landmark legislation like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress significantly improved corporate governance. America must continue to work to restore investor confidence and strengthen its markets.
Basel Capital Standards: As a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, Congresswoman Maloney has been a key player in the Basel Accords, which set new international risk-based capital and liquidity standards for all internationally active banks and all domestic institutions. Read More
Housing Finance Reform: One of Congresswoman Maloney’s top priorities in Congress is ensuring every resident of the 12th Congressional district has housing that they can reasonably afford. She hosted a series of Housing Roundtables with residents, business leaders and City and State elected officials to discuss the current state of housing. She is fighting for New Yorkers in Congress and with federal officials to ensure housing options that work for all New Yorkers are available. Whether representing first time homebuyers, hardworking families ready to expand their home base, one income parents struggling to keep a roof over their heads, or elderly residents searching for housing with essential services for seniors, she has and will continue to advocate for affordable housing options for New Yorkers at every stage of life. Read More
Equifax Breach: The Equifax data breach affected roughly 143 million American consumers and compromised sensitive personal information that criminals could use to steal consumers’ identity for years to come. Congresswoman Maloney believes Equifax violated federal law by failing to take simple but critical steps to prevent the data breach from happening in the first place and she is dedicated to holding Equifax accountable and preventing similar security breaches in future. Read More
Bangladesh Bank Heist: In March of 2016, $81 million was stolen from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Congresswoman Maloney, then Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs, as well as a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanded answers from the New York Fed as the world tried to make sense of what happened and how. In May of 2016, the Congresswoman kept up the pressure for reforms by requesting that the three U.S. bank regulators — the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — review the Bangladesh Bank heist and take steps to ensure that both U.S. banks and SWIFT (the international money-transferring system) have cybersecurity controls in place to guard against similar cyber-attacks. Both the NY Fed and SWIFT made reforms to their security protocols after the Congresswoman's inquiries. Read More
Select Highlights
Dodd-Frank Act: In 2009 President Obama called for major reforms as the U.S. desperately tried to climb from the depths of the financial crisis, and we've achieved the vast majority of his goals. Congresswoman Maloney took a leadership role on enacting financial reform legislation as a conferee to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This landmark legislation helped restore the economy and continues to protect Americans from unscrupulous behavior by improving transparency and accountability. It helped provide market stability so that more than 12 million private sector jobs could be created. The unemployment rate was cut in half, and our economy continues to grow in part because of the reforms she put in place. Read More
Sarbanes Oxley Act: In 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes Oxley Act, a series of corrective measures made in response to several major corporate and accounting scandals in the early 2000s. Major scandals such as Enron shook investor confidence and required congressional response. Congresswoman Maloney supported this legislation and continues to work to strengthen our markets and protect consumers while allowing our financial system to support economic growth.
Housing Trust Fund: In July 2014 Congresswoman Maloney, along with Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), wrote to Director Mel Watt of the Federal Housing Finance Agency urging him to fund the Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund. In December 2014 Director Watt directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin setting aside and allocating funds to the Housing Trust Fund. This provided a dedicated source of revenue for the construction and preservation of affordable housing for extremely low-income families.
Financial Institution Examination Fairness and Reform Act: Congresswoman Maloney is the lead Democrat, along with Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, of a bill addressing bank examination standards which ensures that financial institutions have an appropriate outlet for their concerns about examinations. She had heard many reports from institutions in her district that there was a disconnect between policy coming out of Washington and the conduct of examinations in the field. The bill Congresswoman Maloney introduced is designed to expose many of those concerns and attempts to close the gap between Washington and field examiners.
Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA): In the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster, Congresswoman Maloney was a strong supporter of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which provided a federal backstop so that terrorism insurance would continue to be available in high-risk areas such as New York City. Everyone knows that a major terrorist attack would be devastating not only for our citizens and our country, but also for our economy. This is why reauthorizing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is so essential to our country’s continued economic well-being. Based on the evidence to date, she believes that the private sector still will not offer adequate coverage to support economic development in high risk areas. To most effectively encourage the market to develop long-term solutions we need to continue TRIA as a federal backstop, not only for the short term, but also for a mid-to-long-term time frame. That is why Congresswoman Maloney voted for the successful reauthorization of TRIA in both 2007 and 2015.
TARP Data Disclosure: Congresswoman Maloney introduced H.R. 1242 in March 2009 because she had read report after report about questionable spending by financial institutions, whose funds were unable to be tracked after receiving taxpayer dollars through the TARP program. The TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act will increase oversight and ensure transparency in the spending of the $700 billion Congress approved in the fall of 2008. We can and must use the technological tools that are available in this day and age to get a complete, real time picture of how TARP funds are being spent. Read More