Raising Consolidated Assets Threshold Under Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, Congresswoman Love stands with Main Street. Main-Street-based community banks are why we are on the floor today, because they are at the heart of helping our families start new restaurants, get consumer financing, finance our farmers.

I come from a very rural state, Arkansas, and 70 percent of the agricultural production loans in this country are made by our locally owned community banks.

Making it easier for them to raise capital makes it easier for our consumers and businesses to get the credit they need. For every dollar raised in capital at our banks, $10 can be put into lending into our communities. And small bank holding companies have less access to equity financing than their larger counterparts. It has always been that way. So this effort makes complete common sense, to allow small bank and thrift holding companies to expand their capital base in an easier and more directed manner.

Dodd-Frank made it harder to raise capital because of the changes in the law about trust preferred securities and other ways that many, many small banks raised capital. So this policy statement change that Mrs. Love proposes is well-timed.

There is bipartisan support for raising this threshold to $5 billion, notwithstanding the comments heard in today's floor conversation. Senator Brown, Democrat in the Senate, with Mr. Vitter in the Senate last Congress, proposed $5 billion as the appropriate level for this effort.

Additionally, Mr. Speaker, concerning the ranking member's comments about raising the threshold on carte blanche relief under the policy statement that might lead to unsafe conditions, that is, in my view, not correct, Mr. Speaker, as there are numerous other restrictions and criteria that continue to apply, and the Federal Reserve retains the right to impose capital standards if it determines it necessary to protect the safety and soundness of the institutions.

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Mr. HILL. This bill is about Main Street and economic growth, and it surprises me as just a Member of Congress that our President, President Obama, would issue a veto message on this bill.

This bill is about economic growth, and I applaud my good friend from Utah's efforts at championing this bill. I urge my colleagues to support its commonsense design and measure.

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