Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague and friend and chair for yielding, and I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle for his support for this bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6934, the Uniform Treatment of NRSROs Act. NRSROs are nationally recognized statistical rating agencies. This is a bipartisan bill that addresses businesses' need for greater access to Federal lending facilities in the time of COVID and a uniform treatment of credit rating agencies in the application process for these much- needed loans. In response to the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, several lending facilities have been created to assist struggling businesses at this difficult time. The Federal Reserve and Treasury, however, have limited access to these facilities to businesses whose assets have been rated by only a select few credit rating agencies, making it unnecessarily difficult for many businesses to access much-needed resources. In Pennsylvania alone, several small and mid-sized companies as well as municipal bond issuers have been excluded from the facilities or have their ratings from nonapproved rating agencies called into question by the market. This legislation seeks to remove these barriers by amending the CARES Act to require that the Federal Reserve and Treasury accept ratings from any nationally recognized statistical rating organization, or NRSRO.…”