Rep. Al Green highlights disaster recovery reform, community bank protections and fair‑lending measures

Representative Al Green used Member Day testimony to outline multiple legislative priorities ranging from disaster recovery reform to protections for community banks and fair‑lending enforcement.

Green urged Congress to codify processes for disaster recovery and preserve institutional knowledge through the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act, which he said would make the post‑disaster response more consistent and allow faster, more effective relief. “It codifies a process. Currently, after each disaster, we reinvent the wheel, we lose institutional knowledge,” he said.

On pre‑disaster resilience, Green supported keeping a ready coffer of funds so smaller cities can move quickly on immediate needs. In committee questioning, he told the chair that such a coffer “would give us the opportunity to move quickly with the immediate needs. And thereafter, we can deal with the long term needs.”

Green also described bills to shield community banks from being assessed for systemic risk inappropriately, to require regulators to issue reports after invoking systemic‑risk exceptions, and to authorize financial awards for CFPB whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing. He called for stronger fair‑lending enforcement, including a proposed Office of Fair Lending and testing similar to HUD’s fair‑housing testing model.

Green framed a separate, ceremonial bill to award a congressional gold medal to Africans and their descendants enslaved in the United States from 1619 to 1865. He emphasized the gesture as an expression of respect rather than reparations.

These items were presented as legislative priorities during Member Day testimony and discussed in questioning; the hearing produced no formal committee votes or enactments.