Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112th

 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m.

Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor.

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H5863 

Vol. 158 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 No. 122 

House of Representatives 

The House met at 10 a.m. and was 

called to order by the Speaker pro tempore (Ms. BUERKLE

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). 

DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO 

TEMPORE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following communication from the Speaker: 

WASHINGTON, DC, 

September 12, 2012. 

I hereby appoint the Honorable ANN MARIE

BUERKLE to act as Speaker pro tempore on 

this day. 

JOHN A. BOEHNER, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

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MORNING-HOUR DEBATE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 17, 2012, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists submitted by 

the majority and minority leaders for 

morning-hour debate. 

The Chair will alternate recognition 

between the parties, with each party 

limited to 1 hour and each Member 

other than the majority and minority 

leaders and the minority whip limited 

to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall 

debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. 

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CREDIT UNIONS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 minutes. 

Mr. BLUMENAUER. In meeting with 

hundreds of constituents and dozens of 

small business this summer, one theme 

emerges repeatedly: The price that 

American families and small business 

continue to pay for the near collapse of 

our economy. 

Earlier this year, new examples 

emerged of manipulation that was 

harmful, and in some cases potentially 

illegal, by Wall Street in New York and 

Fleet Street in London. Financial interests continue their assault on even 

modest reforms in the Dodd-Frank financial legislation protections for consumers and for the financial system 

itself. Now, clearly, the elements are a 

little overly complex and not perfect, 

but, in part, that’s the result of aggressive action from the industry itself assaulting the regulatory process. 

On the campaign trail, Governor 

Romney and his running mate argue 

for less protection and a return to 

largely self-regulation of banks that 

nearly brought the global economy to 

its knees. 

At the same time, the Republican 

Party’s response to the challenges of 

the mountain of student debt is first to 

reduce the funding for Pell Grants that 

help make college more affordable for 

low-income students, and then they 

would help fewer student borrowers but 

help more bankers by giving the lending business back to the private sector—backed by a government guarantee, by the way. Hardly a free-market solution. 

Governor Romney famously pointed 

out that if this doesn’t work for you, 

you can always borrow from your parents. I think most people, not just Republicans or Democrats, Independents, 

believe that’s not the solution. It’s 

more of the problem, even for those 

students who have parents that could 

finance them. 

There are things that we can do. We 

should, of course, fight to protect the 

reforms and the restraints on Wall 

Street and protect direct, lower-cost 

lending to college students, but we also 

might inject a little more competition 

into the financial marketplace. 

Now, for millions of Americans, a little competition to the big banks comes 

from credit unions who are more on the 

scale of a community bank. Most are 

small to medium-sized, very local, and 

nonprofit, with a volunteer, membership board of directors. 

That nonprofit status is important. 

They not only don’t pay taxes; they’re 

not paying dividends to stockholders or 

multimillion dollar bonuses to CEOs. 

They use that advantage to lower costs 

and improve service. 

Credit unions are currently prohibited from lending more than 12.25 percent of their assets to business. Now 

legislation has been proposed to raise 

this lending cap to a little more than a 

quarter of the assets. That would be 

ideal for small business lending. 

It wasn’t the credit unions on Main 

Street that almost brought the economy to its knees; it was Wall Street 

gamblers and, too often, cheaters in 

the financial sector. They were skirting the law and, in some cases, breaking it. Maybe it’s time that we give 

small businesses a boost by giving commercial banks a little competition. 

I hope my colleagues will not just 

sponsor H.R. 1418, the Small Business 

Lending Enhancement Act of 2011, but 

also be an advocate. It will be a strong 

signal that we truly want competition 

in the financial arena, that actions 

have consequences, and small and 

emerging businesses are our priority. 

Let’s give small business more choices 

for financing they need, and let’s help 

credit unions get more capacity to 

meet that need. 

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ATTACKED AGAIN ON 9/11 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Texas (Mr. POE) for 5 minutes. 

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, 

yesterday was the 11th anniversary of 

the attack on America from 9/11 in 2001 

where Americans were killed, and it 

was an act of terrorism. Yesterday 

Americans were attacked again in two 

attacks, in Egypt and in Libya, apparently terrorists attacking us again on 

9/11. 

The Embassy in Egypt was stormed, 

the American flag was brought down, 


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