Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I surprised the chairman because I finished early.

This hearing is timely as Federal agencies have made important changes recently that benefit the smallest depository institutions.

These are, as you know, very serious accusations and in some cases more than accusations, as we found.

I appreciate that you have invited both Federal and State regulators to continue the conversation that we had last fall about regulatory relief for small banks and for credit unions.

I do agree, Ms. Flournoy, you stated that we do need to end sequestration.

I am in the process of drafting a small lending regulatory relief package along with Sen. Tester that seeks to address some of these problems by clarifying that small lenders are very different than the regulations' intended targets.

I have had at least a dozen community bankers tell me they no longer make real estate loans to people who want to buy a home in a town of 2,000 people.

I am hoping that in this new Congress it has the opportunity to be heard in this Committee and action taken and be considered on the Senate floor.

That is a pretty damning thing, in my view, for the future of rural America.

I want these hearings to make a difference, and in part we need to know what it is legislatively by law needs to be changed.

I am interested in the people they lend money to.

We have in a short period of time seen something like a doubling in the size of the ships over the last five years.

The question is, how do we move forward on those recommendations and would you support a dedicated funding source to freight?

CTIA appreciates Senator Rubio's and Senator Booker's leadership in pushing to make additional spectrum available for unlicensed use.

We appreciate their recognition of the need to maximize this finite resource.

I think you have gotten to the core of the type of feedback loop that is so important.

these rules become part of an examination process that just is a burden and misappropriately applied.

Clearly, with 400 banks failing, we still have to deal with safety and soundness.