Wall Street bank CEOs face fee criticism in second round Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The heads of major U.S. retail banks faced renewed criticism Thursday from Democratic lawmakers who said financial institutions should not have charged Americans billions of dollars in overdraft and other fees during the pandemic.
Testifying before Congress for the second time this week, the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo highlighted their banks’ efforts to waive fees and offer more affordable accounts after Senator Elizabeth Warren attacked them over the costs.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who bore the brunt of Warren’s ire during Wednesday’s Senate hearing, said his bank waived $400 million in overdraft fees for customers who asked for help since the pandemic began. Warren had slammed JPMorgan for gathering $1.46 billion in such fees.

She responded on Thursday, tweeting, “Only @jpmorgan would brag that they only charged about $1.5 billion in overdraft fees during a global pandemic and economic crisis, instead of the roughly $2 billion they usually take.”

In a statement, the Consumer Bankers Association said customers have to opt in for overdrafts and many do so because they “view it as a valuable service.”

On Thursday, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, another Democratic critic of Wall Street, also raised concerns that banks had “raked in” fees “at a time when individuals and families across the country are struggling.”

Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf was pressed by Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney for charging “predatory” overdraft fees on debit card transactions.

Scharf, who is trying to turn Wells Fargo around after its six-year sales practices scandal, said the bank was looking to be “more consumer-friendly.” He said it had recently launched an overdraft-free account that is “probably” now its most popular.

The chief executives of Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley also testified on Wednesday and Thursday.
An influx of illegal border crossings has forced U.S. Customs and Border Protection to implement “report to ICE” orders rather than issuing court appearance dates to illegal aliens.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller tells a House Appropriations Subcommittee that the CBP began issuing “report to ICE” orders to illegal aliens in response to exhausted resources and overcrowded facilities.
At the hearing earlier this week, Miller went on to say that since Mexico has stopped accepting returned migrants, the CBP has encountered over 178,000 illegal immigrants trying to enter the U.S. in April alone. This aggressive statistic shows the highest amount of illegal immigrants entered in the last 20 years. Of the individuals, 35 percent had re-entered the U.S. after having been removed, provoking frustrated Border Patrol agents to commonly refer to Joe Biden as “let ’em go Joe”.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this week, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona (R) accused the DHS of violating immigration law by releasing migrants inside the U.S. without a court date. Homeland Security Subcommittee members addressed this lack of accountability due to the new “report to ICE” orders.

As Biden’s immigration policies continue to strain border resources, thousands of children are being left stuck in overcrowded holding facilities and agents are being forced to take on caretaker roles instead of patrolling for coyotes and drug smugglers.

Meantime, Border Czar Kamala Harris still has yet to visit the border. Critics claim this is an intentional effort on the part of the White House to avoid the poor optics of the crisis.
President Joe Biden’s party is gearing up to sprint through Washington’s sweltering season, trying to squeeze through a long list of top legislative priorities in barely two months. With Biden’s sprawling infrastructure plan stuck in bipartisan talks, a voting rights bill mired in the Senate and the fate of police reform hanging in the air, Democrats acknowledge that time is not necessarily on their side.
Three of the protesters were arrested for obstruction and resisting arrest and the fourth was arrested for carrying an illegal fixed blade knife, Q13 FOX in Seattle reported. The protesters were between 25 and 33 years old. 

SEATTLE’S INTERIM POLICE CHIEF DEMOTES COMMANDER OVER TUSSLE WITH PROTESTER THAT LED TO RIOT LAST SUMMER

The three protesters allegedly interfered with officers who were attempting to arrest another protester who was wanted for an alleged assault. That person was able to get away, police said. 

The protests marked the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of his murder last month. 
It was a gray January morning, and Lisa Craig was in Nashville, three hours from her home in Knoxville, Tenn., preparing to see a sickle cell specialist she hoped could do something so many physicians had been unable to do: bring her painful disease under control.

Ms. Craig, 48, had clashed with doctors over her treatment for years. Those tensions had only increased as the medical consensus around pain treatment shifted and regulations for opioid use became more stringent. Her anguish had grown so persistent and draining that she sometimes thought she’d be better off dead.