Friend,
Wanted to provide you with a quick update on a bill that will be voted on in the House of Representatives this afternoon. The Financial CHOICE Act (H.R. 10) was created to 1) revitalize Main Street and 2) reform Wall Street. Here’s a quick breakdown of what it does, and how it will provide regulatory and financial relief to Americans:
How we got here:
In the aftermath of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and the resulting Great Recession, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was enacted – a 2,300-page rewrite of America’s financial laws. It was an attempt to promote financial stability, accountability, and transparency through increased regulations and government involvement in the financial sector.
The impact:
Seven years later, Dodd-Frank and the 8,000 pages of regulations it has implemented has stifled our country’s economy, put community financial institutions at an even greater disadvantage to Wall Street with excessive costs and overburdensome regulations, and has allowed government bureaucrats to designate certain Wall Street firms as “too big to fail” – while creating a taxpayer-funded bailout fund. The results for people like you and me: fewer choices, more expensive mortgages, and higher bank fees.
What the Financial CHOICE Act does:
- Gets rid of Dodd-Frank overreaches. We need a certain amount of regulation to avoid such crises in the financial sector going forward. However, Dodd-Frank went too far, and its overreach hurt Main Street employers and consumers.
- Ends taxpayer-funded bailouts once and for all. Dodd-Frank made “too big to fail” the law of land – keeping taxpayers on the hook as big banks have only gotten bigger. This practice will be eliminated: not a single dollar of taxpayer money will go to bail out Wall Street firms.
- Delivers relief to Main Street. The Financial CHOICE Act will remove the current one-size-fits-all regulatory approach by incorporating almost two dozen regulatory relief bills for community financial institutions.
- Restructures the CFPB. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unchecked and unconstitutional: it receives automatic spending that is not subject to congressional approval, its directorship is shielded from executive oversight, and it is unaccountable to the judiciary, as Dodd-Frank mandates that the courts defer to the CFPB’s statutory interpretations. The CHOICE Act will make it accountable to the American people.
- Cuts the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Financial CHOICE Act will cut the deficit by $24 billion over the next 10 years.
What Ohio community banks are saying:
"We appreciate Rep. Wenstrup's keen understanding of the important role banks play in our local economy and his support of reasonable regulatory relief measures. By lowering costly regulatory barriers, H.R. 10 will help local banks serve people in Southwestern Ohio who want to buy a home or start and grow a small business." -
Michael Pell, President of First State Bank in Highland County, OH.
"Choice Act contains significant regulatory benefits for credit unions, most importantly making critical reforms to the CFPB. I applaud Congressman Wenstrup’s support of the legislation, as it is the small, community-minded institutions, like those we have here in Ohio, that have suffered the most significant financial impact from the regulatory actions implemented under Dodd-Frank and the CFPB.” -
Scott Everett, Vice President MBS of Wright-Patt Credit Union in Beavercreek, OH.
Why it matters:
Dodd-Frank is a Washington-knows-best policy that would take about 24 million labor hours a year, or 26,477 personnel just to comply with all of its regulations. While we need to ensure that U.S. financial institutions of all sizes are thoughtfully and effectively regulated, we need to update and reform our financial regulations to allow Main Street to thrive.
We’re helping:
- Taxpayers
- Main Street employers
- Community banks and credit unions
- Start-Ups
- Financial futures of Americans
