Richard Hudson: “Given the bicameral and bipartisan support for our bill and the overwhelming consensus about the systemic risk created…”

“Given the bicameral and bipartisan support for our bill and the overwhelming consensus about the systemic risk created by the section we are working to reform today, I am genuinely surprised we are even here debating this today. Nevertheless, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 992, the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, which my Democrat friend from New York, Sean Patrick Maloney, and I have worked together on in the House Agriculture Committee. As my colleagues are aware, our bipartisan bill amends a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act which was included at the 11th hour to ``get 60 votes in the Senate'' as former House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank indicated during a markup of the bill back in February, 2012. This section we reform with our bill was mischaracterized as an effort to prevent ``risky'' swaps activities in the bank. While we believe this provision was proposed in good faith, it simply does not prevent the risk that its authors intended. Moreover, this provision of the bill will cause many American financial institutions to operate at a significant disadvantage to their foreign competitors. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker have both publicly raised concerns about section 716. In the 112th Congress, the House Financial Services Democrats, including Chairman Frank and current Ranking Member Maxine Waters, endorsed H.R.…”