David Schweikert: “First, I would like to offer a thank you to my chairman, Mr. Bachus, and also to the sponsor of the bill, my friend from…”

“First, I would like to offer a thank you to my chairman, Mr. Bachus, and also to the sponsor of the bill, my friend from Connecticut. H.R. 1965 actually has an opportunity here to actually solve some things that have been of frustration, and learning some of the story was fascinating. In Arizona, many of our community banks are quite new, but across the country you hear the story of community banks that have been there for many, many, many years. And we had one come testify and was telling us the story off to the side that most of its shareholders actually go back to returning soldiers of World War II, and they've literally had the same families, the same family members holding these shares for 50, 60 years. It causes one little technical problem: They've literally been up against their 500 shareholders for all of those years. So their ability to access new capital has been limited by these rules. So this is a classic case of, if we want our banking system, particularly our community banks, our local lenders, to be capitalized, which they're typically capitalized with local investments, what a terrific piece of legislation. And it's one of those moments where you stand here and you look across the aisle and you find yourself smiling, saying, This is terrific. We're doing something bipartisan. We're doing something that actually produces capital in our Main Street of our communities, particularly for those lenders that often fund our local neighborhood businesses.…”