Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk Act of 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1116, the Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk Act of 2017, which directs the Federal financial regulatory agencies to tailor their rulemakings in consideration of the risk profiles and business models of the financial institutions that are subject to such rules.

It also directs the agencies to annually report to Congress regarding the specific actions that those agencies have taken to tailor their regulatory actions.

I would just like to thank the ranking member of our committee for actually making the argument in favor of this legislation. She is concerned about big banks, or big banks getting benefits, or big banks not getting enough scrutiny. This bill makes sure that regulatory agencies are focused on the systemic institutions and not overwhelmed by responsibilities of regulating nonsystemically important institutions, our community banks, our regulatory-challenged institutions in our communities; not focus so much attention on imposing compliance burdens on small credit unions.

That is why I support my good friend from Colorado, Representative Tipton's bill, because it gives the regulators more focus on what they should be doing instead of heaping an avalanche of red tape on nonsystemic, small community banks, which are withering on the vine under Dodd-Frank.

Mr. Speaker, since 2010, the Dodd-Frank financial control law has been a disaster for small institutions, those small community banks and credit unions across our country. That law generally applied one-size- fits-all rules and regulations on financial institutions, regardless of the fact that many businesses in the same industry are substantially different.

This is in recognition of the ranking member's argument that big banks are different than small banks. For the life of me, I don't know why she wouldn't be fully supportive of the bill.

As a direct result of Dodd-Frank, which applies this one-size-fits- all approach, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has lost about 20 percent of its banks and credit unions, with more bank closures anticipated in the future.

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Mr. BARR. This is particularly concerning because our State-chartered banks provide about 75 percent of the lending in rural America and about half of all the U.S. lending nationwide. As you can see, with fewer community financial institutions due to Dodd-Frank's 28,000 new restrictions, Americans will have less access to the capital they need to buy a home, purchase a car, and start a business.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Mr. Tipton, for his leadership on the TAILOR Act. I urge my colleagues, especially the ranking member, to vote in favor of the TAILOR Act, to do exactly what she has been urging, which is allow regulators to focus on big banks, not small community banks. I applaud Mr. Tipton for fulfilling that objective.

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