Andy Barr: “I want to thank the chairman of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee for her leadership on this important…”

“I want to thank the chairman of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee for her leadership on this important legislation. I want to thank also my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have joined us in a bipartisan way to advance this sensible legislative correction. Madam Speaker, obviously, government bureaucrats don't always know best, and they certainly don't know our local communities better than we do. That is why I introduced H.R. 2672, the Helping Expand Lending Practices in Rural Communities Act, or HELP Rural Communities Act, which would help remedy a bizarre situation created by a flawed, one- size-fits-all government regulation that is making life harder for millions of Americans, including my constituents in central and eastern Kentucky. My legislation, the HELP Rural Communities Act, is about making the Federal Government more responsive to the people who know their communities better than regulators in Washington, D.C. It is a simple, pragmatic, and bipartisan solution that says that if Federal bureaucrats are going to impose different rules based on the localized characteristics of an area, then they actually need to listen to the input of the people in the communities who know those characteristics of those communities. A few weeks ago, I was visiting with constituents in a rural county in my district, Bath County, in a country general store. And when I was sitting there talking to my constituents, a horse-drawn buggy passed by.…”