Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Luetkemeyer for all his hard work on what I think is an excellent bill. It is fascinating to sit in this Chamber and listen to the debate and the fear-mongering that takes place.

Before I get into that, let's just take a trip down memory lane. We have to look at the financial crisis and what the Democrats chose to do, the idea that you can't let any good crisis go to waste. There is a financial crisis, so we go to our file cabinets, we open them up, and every progressive, liberal idea we take out and put them into Dodd- Frank--a 2,300-page bill, a bill that was written before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission even came out with their report on the cause of the crisis.

This is a very, very simple tweak. Right now we have designations for systemically risky banks at a set assets threshold of $50 billion. Let me tell you what, I have banks in Wisconsin. They are small, regional banks--not Wall Street banks--that are getting crushed by these new rules and regulations.

So all we are saying to my friends across the aisle is: You love the regulators. You think that the regulators are awesome.

We are trying to empower the regulators to look at the facts on the ground and to look at the interconnectedness and complexity to determine risk, not just have a one-size-fits-all mentality. It is not one size fits all. We are more complex. Banks are as different as people.

Let's look at the complexity at every bank and make sure they can operate within their communities in a way that fits the risk to the financial system.

This gets back to the American people. Why does this matter? Why is this not just about finance and complex rules?

Because if banks can't lend, or if they lend and you are driving up the cost of their lending, then that has a real impact on the small businesses in my community and the families in my community that can't get a loan, or the loans they do get, the costs are going through the roof because of all the new compliance costs.

The bottom line is why do we want to have increased regulatory burdens on banks that aren't risky?
Let's have the regulators focus like a laser on the banks on Wall Street who do need the increased regulation, but not the ones that don't.

One size doesn't fit all. Let's work together. Let's modify Dodd- Frank. This isn't Holy Scripture. It didn't come down from Heaven on high. It can be fixed. It is not perfect. Again--we are going to say this all day--Barney Frank even thinks the threshold is too low. It can be fixed.

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Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my good friend, the ranking member. Commonsense reform that looks to your good friends, the regulators, to take a sound look at risk profiles, and then decide what kind of regulatory regime is necessary for the risk that is presented by each of these banks.

I thank the chairman for his work. I encourage everyone on both sides of the aisle to support this commonsense bill that supports small businesses and American families to make America great again.

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