Steve Stivers: “I would like to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 299, the…”

“I would like to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 299, the Capital Access for Small Community Financial Institutions Act. I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and the other bill sponsors--Mrs. Beatty from Ohio, Mr. Tiberi from Ohio, and Mr. Carson from Indiana. As you can hear, I lost my voice last night, but I am the voice for 1.2 million people who are currently denied access to the liquidity that the Federal Home Loan Bank system offers inside financial transactions. This bill would simply make a small statutory change that would allow nonfederally insured credit unions to apply for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank system. It would not guarantee their memberships. They would go through the normal underwriting process like any other applicant. The irony here is that every other credit union can join the Federal Home Loan Bank system, and every other bank and many nonbank entities, like insurance companies, are allowed to join the Federal Home Loan Bank system. Only privately insured credit unions are denied. Currently, there are 128 small credit unions in nine States representing 1.2 million people, including firefighters and teachers and church workers and small business people, with total assets of $13 billion, people who are not insured by the Federal Government but who are insured by a mutual private insurance company and so are denied access to the Federal Home Loan Bank system.…”