Date: 2016-04-14
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself the balance of my time. On Tuesday in the Committee on Rules. I reminded Members that I came to the Committee on Financial Servicesit was known as the Banking Committee back thenin the wake of the savings and loan crisis. One of the biggest lessons I took away from that time was that we must be precise when we mandate changes to bank safety and soundness rules. even when our intent is to help community financial institutions. Congress intent may have been to help savings and loans serve their communities. but by not being measured and considered in its actions. Congress transformed the savings and loan industry into one that serves speculative investments and irresponsible CEOs. That recklessness led to a banking crisis that brought down more than a thousand institutions. cost taxpayers more than $120 billion. and robbed many communities of access to affordable banking products. As I have said. it is important that the small bank holding company policy statement threshold is carefully calibrated so it cannot be abused by speculative investors. If the threshold is raised too high. it will have the opposite of the intended impact. It will lead to mergers and acquisitions. riskier banking activities. and a reduction in banking services and credit availability to rural. lowincome. minority. and underserved communities. That is why 2 years ago I worked diligently with my Republican counterparts to pass a bill that raised the threshold to $1 billion in assets. providing additional funding resources to 89 percent of the banks in the United States. That was smart. bipartisan legislating. a decision that we came to after consulting the regulators. researching the industry. and carefully considering the ramifications of the proposal. In addition to that bill on the small bank holding company policy statement. I and my fellow Democrats in both the House and the Senate also introduced comprehensive legislation that would reduce compliance costs at community banks. We introduced this legislation. which included carefully targeted reforms that would allow small banks to thrive rather than encouraging consolidation. as this bill would do. Our support for small institutions is also why my fellow Democrats and I have been supportive of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. which has used SMART data analysis to thoughtfully calibrate their rules for the needs of small banks. We often forget that in the runup to the crisis. many small banks were pushed out of the lending business by unregulated. nonbank lenders. The CFPB has now created an even playing field. and small banks and credit unions are a bigger share of the mortgage market now than they have been in years. Carefully considered reforms provide relief to community banks without creating unintended consequences in a complex financial system with many players. Unfortunately. the legislation before us today would. as my friends across the aisle say over and over again. hurt the people it is trying to help. After we worked in good faith with Republicans to come up with a smart. targeted reform. we are now attempting to use this issue as a political wedge. It is exactly that kind of thinking that set the groundwork for the savings and loan crisis and left thousands of communities without access to banking services. I would urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.