Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support Mr. Emmer's bill, H.R. 2954. Dodd-Frank added unprecedented new regulations on industry. As has been said already by my colleagues, institutions now have to collect 25 additional fields of data. This is more than double what the banks and credit unions and other lenders had to report prior to passage of Dodd- Frank. Not only do these added requirements increase costs for all financial institutions, but it has taken lots of time for smaller community lenders to prepare for them. This House should be well aware of two surveys of small financial institutions that reported an alarming inability of those entities to meet these new requirements. In fact, in my meetings with small banks and credit unions from Oklahoma, all of them have raised these specific rules and requirements as being costly enough to affect their business decisions: such as how many mortgages they could feasibly originate. All of this makes this bill not only timely, but immensely necessary. I represent a district that is full of institutions that originate fewer than 500 closed-end mortgages or open-end lines of credit in 2 years. While these new requirements were certainly well-intentioned, their impact on small institutions cannot be overstated and should not be lessened. We as a body should continue to find ways to grow the ability of Americans to receive and to utilize financial instruments, such as mortgages.…”