Pub. 5 2015 Issue 3

Over-Regulation Has Harmed Our Community Banks W E ARE NOW EIGHT MONTHS INTO THE 114TH CONGRESS AND THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES HAS ramped up at a rapid pace. As we move into the second half of this session, there are several issues that the Com- mittee will most likely take up. Over the last eight years, our national mon- etary policy, set by the Federal Reserve, has led to systemic mispricing of money. In an effort to bring more transparency and a return to normalcy, the Commit- tee began what is sure to be a robust Federal Reserve reform platform. Housing reform continues to be a hot-button issue, and there could be some common ground at least as far getting private capital back into the market is concerned. One of the biggest fights this fall will be on Chairman Neugebauer’s Consumer Financial Pro- tection Bureau reform bill. In July, we reached a dubious milestone: the fifth anniversary of the passage of Dodd-Frank. To say this DC- centric regulatory monstrosity has sown chaos into the market would be an un- derstatement. Five years later, and with more than a third of the bill’s required regulations still outstanding, the market has become more homogenous resulting in greater fragility; DC is crushing our community banks. During every hearing the Financial Services Committee held this Congress analyzing Dodd-Frank’s five year ten- ure, I heard members from both sides remark that Dodd-Frank has created a nationwide crisis for banks that are “too small to succeed.” Every week, I meet with Arizona bankers from all over the state: Phoenix, Tucson, Prescott, By Rep. David Schweikert 10 www.azbankers.org