Gottheimer Hails Passage of Bipartisan Bill to Boost Economic Growth and Protect North Jersey Consumers, Seniors, Veterans, and Families

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), a member of the House Financial Service Committee, hailed the passage of a bipartisan bill to boost economic growth and protect American consumers, seniors, veterans, and families.

“I’m proud that today’s common sense, bipartisan legislation includes many of the priorities I’ve been working toward since entering Congress, helping families, farmers, entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes start, grow, thrive, and contribute to our economy with new access to credit and loans,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “There should be nothing partisan about this work. I am committed to working hard and working together to deliver results for North Jersey. I’ve worked for months in committee to make sure today’s bill will help Main Street, keep New Jersey seniors safe, and protect the credit of our veterans.”

The measure provides targeted relief to community banks and credit unions around the country, helping residents of the Fifth District by spurring business growth and expanding access to credit and loans, while protecting the key safeguards in place.

In addition to helping North Jersey families, workers, and businesses, the bipartisan bill contains numerous underlying pieces of legislation cosponsored by Gottheimer that protect seniors from scammers, veterans’ credit, and consumers overall. The bill cracks down on fraud and supports New Jersey seniors and veterans: it provides consumers with free credit freezes and unfreezes and allows them to set yearlong fraud alerts; it encourages banks to report suspicious behavior to help prevent seniors from getting scammed; and it provides free credit monitoring for all active-duty service members, while preventing credit bureaus from placing negative information on veterans’ credit scores for one year, due to delays in the Department of veterans Affairs’ Veterans Choice Program payments.

In January of this year, Gottheimer co-led  the Small Bank Holding Company Relief Act, joining Reps. Mia Love (UT-4) and Gregory Meeks (NY-5) to introduce legislation that helps small banks access the capital needed to serve their communities. Last October, Gottheimer co-sponsored the bipartisan Senior Safe Act of 2017, which helps protect seniors from financial abuse. Last month, while announcing his Stop Senior Scams Plan, Gottheimer called for the immediate passage of the Act to allow our financial institutions and our financial advisors to report senior exploitation when they see it. In October of 2017, Gottheimer called for an immediate and swift response from Equifax following the data breach that exposed sensitive financial and personal data of millions of Americans. He also led 17 members of the Financial Services Committee calling for Chairman Hensarling to host a separate consumer protection hearing investigating Equifax insider trading allegations. And in May 2017, just months after being sworn in, Gottheimer co-sponsored the bipartisan Protecting Veterans Credit Act to protect veterans’ credit scores and credit reports and support those who risk their lives to keep up safe.

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