Financial Institution Customer Protection Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the chairman yielding. I am grateful for Chairman Luetkemeyer's work on this important issue.

Our financial systems are the bedrock of our economy. When financial systems work, our economy works. And we have seen when our financial system doesn't work, things come crashing down. To make sure our financial system is safe and sound, we have empowered regulators to keep an eye over it, to make sure we don't do things that are too risky that can endanger the financial system and then, therefore, the economy.

One of the problems, though, is that those regulators have stepped outside that traditional role and have tried to impact policy decisions that should be made in this institution by rules and regulations that come out from their oversight capacity.

I look at the liberals, or it might be the progressives, inside the FDIC who, in line with the administration, said: I don't like gun dealers, I don't like ammunition manufacturers. Who cares about the Second Amendment? I don't like them.

Now, if you don't like guns and you don't like ammunition and you don't like short-term lenders, if you want to get rid of those things, have a debate about it. Have an argument. Introduce a bill, and let's vote on it. Let the American people see it. But the administration knows they will lose because most Americans like their guns, they like their Second Amendment.

So instead of going through this institution, they very craftily thought: Wow, just think, if we were able to, as regulators, put pressure on banks so banks would stop banking legal businesses that we don't like--guess what happens if they can't bank? They will go out of business, and we will have less guns, less ammunition, and we will have less short-term lending. That is exactly what they have done.

But we didn't empower the FDIC to make policy decisions. We said, hey, keep the banking system safe and sound. But like so many corners of this administration, they have expanded that authority to advance their liberal, progressive agenda.

I know my friends across the aisle, who I like very much and are friends of mine, are trying to focus on big banks and Wall Street. But, Mr. Chairman, to the ranking member I would say: Listen, big banks aren't being affected by Choke Point. It is the smallest, little businesses in our communities that don't have the power to stand up and fight back and push back. They are the ones that are affected.

Big banks on Wall Street don't get hit by this. It is the little guy. This is a bill that Mr. Luetkemeyer crafted that stands up for the little guy--the little one that doesn't have the lobbyist and the money to come to town to talk to Members of Congress--who is being affected by this liberal progressive agenda today that they know can't be get passed by law, so they do it by regulation.

This is one more horrible example of how your government isn't working and how this institution isn't representing the people that we were sent here to represent.

This is a great bill. Let's pass it. Let's join together and let's stop Operation Choke Point.

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