Jon Tester: “I rise to urge my colleagues to support the Tester-Hutchison amendment. My colleague from Texas and I came to the floor…”

“I rise to urge my colleagues to support the Tester-Hutchison amendment. My colleague from Texas and I came to the floor yesterday to talk about this bipartisan, commonsense amendment to hold banks accountable for their behavior and to preserve the integrity of the FDIC deposit insurance fund. Our amendment would force big banks to pay their fair share of insurance by basing assessments on assets rather than deposits. It would fix the lopsided assessment system that we have now, which unfairly burdens our community banks. It would ensure that the FDIC has the necessary resources to maintain the health of the deposit insurance fund. Senator Hutchison and I think this amendment makes a good deal of common sense. I am pleased this is one of the first amendments up for consideration because it highlights the fact that Democrats and Republicans do agree on ways we can strengthen what is already a very good bill.”