Issue Position: Financial Services Committee

Issue Position

My seat on the House Financial Services Committee provides central and eastern Kentuckians with a voice to champion the important role of community financial institutions. Kentucky's community banks and credit unions have a proud history, and as a member of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, I am focused on improving the regulatory environment that threatens our community financial institutions and limits Kentuckians' access to responsible credit. Access to credit issues impact the ability of Kentuckians to do things like purchase a home, expand and grow a business, or maintain the operations of a farm, so it is vital that Washington's lending rules do not close economic opportunities by going too far. In addition to oversight of the banking regulatory system, my work on the Financial Services Committee also involves issues related to housing, insurance, capital markets, and monetary policy.

As your Representative in the 113th Congress, I have supported these financial services legislative initiatives:

* I introduced H.R. 2672, the CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act. The idea for this legislation began with a hearing held by the Financial Services Committee in May 2013, where I learned about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's blatantly incorrect designation of Bath County, Kentucky as "non-rural." This legislation would provide rural areas like Bath County the right to petition to be properly reclassified as "rural" and relieve them from burdensome regulations that limit their ability to lend and help create jobs in their communities.

* I introduced H.R. 2673, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act. This legislation provides regulatory relief to the Qualified Mortgage rule in Dodd-Frank for residential mortgage loans held on portfolio for the life of the loan. The principles of this legislation were included in H.R. 2767, the PATH Act (Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners).

* I cosponsored H.R. 1533, the Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act. This legislation addresses three major concerns that community financial institutions have with the examination process: the lack of timeliness with examinations; the inconsistencies and lack of adherence to examination standards; and the lack of independence and effectiveness with the current appeals process.

* I supported H.R. 2767, the PATH Act. This legislation reforms our nation's broken housing finance system, which is currently dominated by two housing Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie May and Freddie Mac -- the GSEs at the epicenter of the financial crisis. This legislation would wind down Fannie and Freddie, which have been in conservatorship since 2008 and were recipients of the largest bailout in U.S. history, at nearly $200 billion. Further, in an effort to build a sustainable housing finance system that protects both taxpayers and homeowners, the PATH Act includes reforms to clearly define the mission of the Federal Housing Administration and a number of vital regulatory relief measures which invite private-sector capital back into the system.

Source