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Financial Choice Act of 2017

Floor Speech

By: Andy Barr
By: Andy Barr
Date: June 8, 2017
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Finance and Banking

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Mr. Chairman, the Dodd-Frank Act is a failure, period. It is estimated to reduce economic output by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, and it contains more regulatory restrictions than all of the other regulations enacted by the previous administration combined, including ObamaCare.

The Financial CHOICE Act provides an off-ramp--much-needed relief--to Dodd-Frank's growth-crushing regulations. Financial institutions like community banks and credit unions will have the choice to stay under the Dodd-Frank regulatory regime or opt for the relief that they are willing to obtain if they meet a 10 percent simple leverage ratio, a level that ensures that they can weather economic downturns without the help of taxpayer bailouts.

This legislation also reins in the primary culprit of the regulatory onslaught that has caused one in five community financial institutions in my State of Kentucky to close: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is done by giving Congress the power of the purse over the Bureau for the first time, making its Director removable by the President, requiring it to conduct cost-benefit analysis, and enhancing its mission to focus on consumer protection through competition and choice.

This legislation also delivers important regulatory relief to community financial institutions, incorporating the TAILOR Act, which requires Federal regulators to tailor their regulations based on the size of financial institutions instead of using the typical one-size- fits-all Washington model.

Additionally, the Financial CHOICE Act ends stifling Dodd-Frank regulations that constrain lending for manufactured homes by including the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act. It also further reduces the chances of a mortgage crisis by giving financial firms an incentive to retain 100 percent of a mortgage's risk and greater flexibility to lend by including my Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act.

Finally, this legislation places the steepest penalties in history on financial firms that actually break our laws.
So it ends too big to fail, it includes tough penalties--the toughest penalties in history--for financial fraud and other misdeeds, but it preserves consumer protections through competition, choice, and access to the credit Americans need to build our economy.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Hensarling for his leadership on this issue.

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