Congress Defense Spending

House Armed Services Committee Poisons the NDAA

Written by SK Ashby

In a sick gesture of bad faith, Republicans sitting on the House Armed Services Committee have inserted language into the next iteration of the yearly National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would effectively block a law against predatory lending practices aimed at military service members.

If the banking item is enacted, it would impose a one-year delay on new Department of Defense rules meant to shield military families from abusive terms on payday loans and other forms of high-interest credit. The bill is being considered Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. [...]

Wednesday's GOP bill would delay those rules for a year, ostensibly to allow for a new study to examine the effects of the rules. The CFPB has already performed two such studies.

If shady lenders aren't permitted to target military service members with reckless abandon, freedom is a lie and the Constitution is dead.

If you were to assert that commissioning unnecessary studies is a waste of time and government resources, I'd say you're right, but the GOP is very fond of wasteful spending and unnecessary studies. Congressional Republicans have also attempted to block EPA regulations by commissioning redundant and unnecessary studies.