Hensarling Opening Statement at Full Committee Markup
Washington,
July 29, 2014 -
“Again, job number one will continue to be the creation of jobs and economic growth in this committee. These bills are designed to ensure just that.”
WASHINGTON- House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following opening statement at today’s full committee markup of regulatory relief and Washington accountability and transparency legislation:
Today I need not remind Members yet again we have tens of millions of our fellow countrymen who awoke today; they had no job to go to. Others are underemployed making less than what they once made, wondering when a good economy will return and when they themselves will be able to have greater economic opportunity.
We know that we have a historically high number of our fellow citizens dependent upon food stamps. We have the lowest workforce participation rate in at least a generation or more. Economic opportunity and job growth still should be job number one of this committee. Hopefully that is one thing we can both agree on, is that this economy could be doing better.
We believe, particularly on this side of the aisle, that no matter how well intentioned regulation may be, the cumulative impact can slow down economic growth and slow down job opportunities. We’ve had countless witnesses sit at that table right there and tell us the very same thing.
As one community banker from my native Texas said “I will tell you my major risk is not credit risk, risk of theft, risk of some robber coming in with a gun in my office. My number one risk is federal regulatory risk.” And that is why it is imperative this committee not look at the purported benefits of rule making, but look at the actual benefits and then weigh that against the actual cost which is another way of simply asking the question “what impact will this regulation have on the economic opportunity of low and moderate-income Americans?”
So far the committee has passed 38 different regulatory relief bills that will hopefully lead to smarter regulation and greater economic growth. 20 of them have passed the house, many with bipartisan support. We hope to add at least five more to that list today. We look forward to the Senate actually doing anything, but we would particularly look forward to the Senate taking up some of this legislation.
So again we will have a number of regulatory relief bills. We will also have the Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act. We’ve had a full legislative hearing on this. Then we had the Humphrey-Hawkins testimony so I know that Members are well familiar with this piece of legislation; very familiar with the debate. At the end of the day, I believe this is about accountability and about transparency and it’s not theory; history shows us that when the Fed will let the rest of us know; job creators, entrepreneurs, small business people, know how monetary policy will be conducted, the economy performs better and more people get to go to work.
In addition, the gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Pearce, has been a real leader on a bill to reauthorize NAHASDA and we look forward to having that piece of legislation taken care of in this committee as well.
Again, job number one will continue to be the creation of jobs and economic growth in this committee. These bills are designed to ensure just that. I look forward to the markup.
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