Advancing the Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 3709, the Advancing Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act, which supports small banks, credit unions by codifying the Financial Agent Mentor-Protege Program at the Department of the Treasury.

This program, as you have heard from our chairman and our ranking member, pairs up small rural financial institutions with large banks and credit unions providing resources, training, and technical assistance to help them better serve their communities and become financial agents to Treasury themselves.

Small financial institutions include, as you have heard from both our chair and the ranking member, they include MDIs, Minority Depository Institutions. I am very proud to take this moment and personal privilege to say, like Adelphi Bank in my district in Columbus, Ohio, president and CEO, Jordan Miller, and the founder, Kevin Boyce, every day in this bank they are helping low-income, underserved constituents and the community at large.

These institutions know the financial needs of their communities best, and they provide essential financial services like mortgage credits, small business, and auto loans, investment banking and more. Mr. Speaker, these are all the things that we talk about in this very Chamber when we talk about working folks and jobs.

The chairman mentioned housing. Great point. But if you aren't financially able to do it, and if we could only have our larger banks participate in this program, which this legislation would do, it would help accomplish all of the things that we have heard today.

Mr. Speaker, MDIs, small banks, and credit unions, and rural financial institutions generally have higher expenses and are often forced to merge with other institutions to survive.

Codifying the Mentor-Protege Program at the Department of the Treasury will go a long way toward preserving and strengthening these institutions and ensuring that they can continue to survive and provide the critical banking services that the community needs.

Mr. Speaker, why should we do this? Who supports this? Those are great questions if you were asking that. I am proud that this bill, which has passed on suspension twice before, has the support of the Independent Community Bankers of America, or ICBA; the American Bankers Association, ABA; the America's Credit Unions, ACU; and the National Bankers Association, or NBA.

Mr. Speaker, I have been working on this bill for the entire congressional session because it is so important, and I am so proud that it is a bipartisan piece of legislation.

Let me also just share this: My bill has been endorsed by Ohio regional banks like Huntington Bank, which is headquartered in the capital city of the great State of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio; Fifth Third Bank, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio; and KeyBank, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Speaker, on this, I am sure we can all agree: Supporting small, mission-driven credit unions and community banks directly benefits American consumers and the economy overall.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank Representative Beatty for her steadfast work on this important bill. This is one of the several bills today that I am glad we are considering to strengthen MDIs, CDFIs, community banks, and credit unions.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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