Bipartisan Work of the Financial Services Committee

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Hensarling, and after those kind words, maybe we all should just yield back. But I am going to hang on for a few minutes and talk about some of the great things that we have done on Chairman Hensarling's committee that I have been honored to be a part of for these last 2 years and look forward to continuing on. One of the things to mention in the 115th Congress is to highlight the need to bring JOBS 3.0 across the finish line.

But before I do that, I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that I don't think there has been a harder working committee in Washington, D.C., over the past 2 years, from our leadership all the way down to the committee's staff level, and it shows in our accomplishments. I am proud to have played a small role in some of these victories.

One simply cannot start a speech like this without talking about the tremendous work that went into the Financial CHOICE Act, which ultimately became known as S. 2155.

As we all know, Dodd-Frank was enacted in 2010 in an effort to end the so-called too-big-to-fail financial institutions. However, Dodd- Frank and Congress inadvertently created too-small-to-succeed financial institutions, which punished our regional and community banks and credit unions. It was unfortunate, but in the end, community financial institutions were shut down, while the consumer and small business owner were starved of the access to credit at a time when they needed it the most.

However, with the passage and ultimate enactment of S. 2155, the status quo that I just highlighted has changed, instead, for good. Dodd-Frank reform was a win for North Carolina's community financial institutions, small businesses, innovators, and the economy as a whole. Under this bill, the consumer and small business will get access to the credit they need, whether it be used to buy a home or finally start and expand their businesses.

I think this bill, Mr. Speaker, is, arguably, the most important legislative win this Congress has seen in a long time. It will benefit all sectors of the economy, and I am so excited that we got this done.

On a more personal note, outside of Dodd-Frank reform, I have really enjoyed the work that has gone on at the Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee. Under the leadership of our chairman, Steve Pearce, my bipartisan bill, H.R. 3321, the National Strategy for Combating Terrorist, Underground, and Other Illicit Financing Act, is just one example of this work. I was able to get this bipartisan bill signed by the President and passed into law as part of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

My bill directs the Department of the Treasury to develop a national strategy to combat the financing of terrorism and related forms of illicit finance involving all levels of government. H.R. 3321 will get us closer to a coordinated strategy on disrupting these illicit financial networks in the hopes that we are able to starve terrorist groups like ISIS of the resources they need to carry out their radical agendas.

I also want to highlight and think that we should be proud of the balance we have been trying to strike with regard to fintech. I have my own legislation on this front, for example, H.R. 6849, the Bank Secrecy Innovation Act, which directs the Secretary of the Treasury to encourage the use of technological innovations that improve financial institutions' anti-money laundering programs.

Financial institutions currently have little incentive to invest in innovative technology solutions to BSA compliance because of the regulatory inflexibility. The Bank Secrecy Innovation Act will provide financial institutions with greater incentive and certainty when experimenting with technology to aid in BSA compliance by providing a safe harbor against having the use of such technology be the basis for regulatory penalty.

The application of innovative technology by financial institutions in their BSA compliance programs will likely improve the detection of illicit activity, leading to more efficient and higher quality reporting of suspicious activity by financial institutions. Better, more targeted reports likely will aid law enforcement in focusing their limited resources on real criminal activities, while also reducing the time that law enforcement must spend weeding out reports that are just irrelevant.

As I said earlier, Mr. Speaker, there is still one more package of bills that passed out of our committee and this body with strong bipartisan backing that still needs to be pushed across the finish line. I am talking, of course, about JOBS 3.0 and the capital formation package that would further improve our economy and make it easier for companies to go public.

This package included bills like mine, H.R. 3903, the Encouraging Public Offerings Act, that I introduced with my friend on the other side of the aisle from New York, Gregory Meeks. It passed the House, if you can imagine, 417-0.

It allows issuers to submit to the SEC for confidential review, before publicly filing, draft registrations for IPOs. H.R. 3903 will reduce the risk to companies that are just thinking about going public, in order to make listing on exchanges even more attractive, which, in the end, will only strengthen our financial markets.

Mr. Speaker, the legislation found under JOBS will make it easier for startups and small businesses in North Carolina to attract the investments they need to go public, grow, and create more jobs.

I also want to highlight, briefly, title 14 of JOBS, which protects the American insurance standards. This strong, bipartisan language found under title 14 will give U.S. negotiators the strong legislative backing they need when they negotiate with international bodies like the IAIS.

Now, as we try to bring JOBS over the finish line, I am hopeful that we can keep this strong, bipartisan language in the bill. We must keep it in whatever version of JOBS that we pass. The American insuranc consumer needs it and also deserves it. So let's get JOBS done.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, like my colleagues have said before, I want to thank our chairman, Jeb Hensarling, for his principled leadership of this committee and for seeing us through some great wins in the 115th Congress. He has been a friend, a mentor, and somebody I respect in the way he leads, and leads his family greatly, and I know that he will be missed.

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