WHEREAS, The United States and the world are still recovering from the devastation caused by the global financial crisis of 2008, the deepest economic recession in the United States since the Great Depression of 1929; and

WHEREAS, Millions of Americans were forced from their homes, deprived of their life savings, and denied their opportunity to pursue the American Dream, all because of reckless and irresponsible Wall Street bankers and speculators; and

WHEREAS, The recession forced deep cuts to education and social welfare programs for the most vulnerable in American society, resulting in incalculable and irreparable harm to countless Americans; and

WHEREAS, More than eight million Americans lost their jobs between January 2008 and December 2009, and the national unemployment rate doubled in less than two years, reaching 10 percent in October of 2009; and

WHEREAS, Annual home foreclosures in the United States tripled from 2006 to 2009 to almost 2.5 million per year, and at least 2.5 million businesses closed their doors as a result of the recession; and

WHEREAS, Child poverty in the United States rose by 6 percentage points, from 19.7 percent in 2007 to 25.7 percent in 2010; and

WHEREAS, California’s overall unemployment rate surpassed 12 percent and the number of Californians who were employed hit a historic low of 55.9 percent; and

WHEREAS, K–14 per pupil spending in California suffered a series of dramatic cuts in the years following the recession, totaling nearly $30 billion between the 2008–09 and 2011–12 fiscal years, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. To offset reductions, the state reduced the number of days children were in school and school districts were forced to slash course offerings, lay off staff, and reduce arts and recreational opportunities; and

WHEREAS, The gross recklessness of the privileged few individuals responsible for the near-collapse of the global economy was paid for by the suffering of the vast majority of Americans and by encumbering future generations with debt; and

WHEREAS, American taxpayers were asked to pay $700 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program to bail out the banks responsible for the financial crisis; and

WHEREAS, No chief executive of the financial institutions responsible for instigating the global financial crisis was charged with a criminal offense; and

WHEREAS, The 2010 federal Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, hereafter Dodd-Frank, was enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis, and is hailed as the most significant overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression; and

WHEREAS, Dodd-Frank protects American consumers, taxpayers, and the economy by regulating the banking and financial services industries to prevent unfair and deceptive acts and practices and prohibit the creation and spread of reckless financial instruments that can cripple the global economy; and

WHEREAS, Dodd-Frank established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which polices predatory and exploitative practices by financial institutions and has secured billions of dollars for consumers who were negatively impacted by improper or illegal lending and servicing practices; and

WHEREAS, On June 8, 2017, the United States House of Representatives passed legislation called the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017, which seeks to eliminate financial regulations intended to protect consumers, including the repeal of the trading restrictions known as the Volcker Rule, the repeal of the United States Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule that requires brokers to act in the best interest of their clients when advising on retirement investments, and reducing the oversight authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and

WHEREAS, The Financial CHOICE Act of 2017 does more to dismantle critical financial protections than any piece of legislation in a generation, frees America’s biggest banks to once again undermine the integrity of the global financial system, and leaves consumers vulnerable to the same predatory practices that caused the Great Recession of 2008; now, therefore, be it