Capital Access for Small Community Financial Institutions Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BEATTY. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Ranking Member Waters for all of her support and her leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3584, the Capital Access for Small Community Financial Institutions Act, as amended.

Today I stand here, joining my colleague from Ohio, Congressman Steve Stivers, in support of final passage of this bipartisan legislation. I thank the gentleman for introducing this bill on which I partnered as the lead Democrat. In a show of bipartisanship, we were able to work together to have the legislation unanimously reported out of the Financial Services Committee, as it is certainly worth noting again, with a vote of 55-0.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 3584, if enacted, would permit privately insured credit unions to apply for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank system. It would not, however, mandate that these privately insured credit unions become members of the Federal Home Loan Bank. Currently, out of roughly some 6,000 credit unions across the country, there are 132 privately insured credit unions operated in nine States. These States include Alabama, California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, my home State of Ohio, and Texas.

In particular, this bill would improve access to home mortgage loans for members of the three privately insured credit unions that are based in my Third Congressional District of Ohio. H.R. 3584 is an extremely important piece of legislation for these privately insured credit unions because it will help give members and businesses greater access to credit in a tight credit market.

Additionally, this legislation would also benefit the exclusive insurers of privately insured credit unions across the country, which are based in central Ohio, just north of my congressional district, which provide employment for many Ohioans.

In addition, Madam Speaker, in order to ensure the best-drafted bill, Congressman Meeks and I offered amendments that were accepted during the committee markup.

My amendment does two things. First, it removes any language referencing the National Credit Union Administration from the text of the legislation--clarifying that this legislation would not grant any supervisory jurisdiction to the NCUA over privately insured credit unions.

Secondly, it created a Government Accountability Office study and report to Congress on the adequacy of insurance reserves held by the private insurer of these credit unions and also on the compliance of these credit unions with Federal regulations requiring consumers to receive disclosures explaining that such credit unions are privately--not federally--insured.

These changes were supported by the NCUA and unanimously by the entire Financial Services Committee.

Indeed, H.R. 3584, the Capital Access for Small Community Financial Institutions Act, as amended, comes to the floor today because of the efforts of many members of the Financial Services Committee who worked to advance the legislation through regular order of the committee.

I would urge support of H.R. 3584 because this bipartisan legislation is good policy, it is good for small credit unions, and it is an easy and effective way to demonstrate bipartisan, nationwide support for local communities and businesses.

Madam Speaker, I believe this legislation is a perfect example of the type of regular order, committee-driven action that we should use as a template for bipartisan cooperation in the House, and which, if enacted, would bring real benefits to the national housing markets. I urge all of the Members to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3584, as amended.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source