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House Focuses Week on Passing Bipartisan Bills Sponsored by Committee Members
Action on the House floor this week was dominated by bills that came out of the Financial Services Committee. The House passed seven bipartisan bills sponsored by committee members, including bills to help create jobs on Main Street, improve housing assistance, and protect small businesses and consumers from an abuse of executive power.
On Monday, the House passed four bipartisan bills giving small businesses more attention and support from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and helping local banks comply with regulations. The SEC Small Business Advocate Act sponsored by Reps. Sean Duffy (R-WI) and John Carney (D-DE) passed the House by voice vote. The Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act sponsored by Reps. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) and Juan Vargas (D-CA) passed 390-1. The Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act sponsored by Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) passed 347-8, and H.R. 2209 sponsored by Rep. Luke Messer (R-IN) passed by voice vote.
On Tuesday, the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act sponsored by Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) passed 427-0. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the bill is “the first reform…in decades” of HUD and the Rural Housing Service.
The House on Wednesday passed a committee package of regulatory relief bills, the Encouraging Employee Ownership Act. The bill includes provisions sponsored by Reps. Randy Hultgren (R-IL), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), French Hill (R-AR) and Robert Hurt (R-VA). The legislation gives smaller companies increased options to attract investment capital, updates rules to allow small businesses to better compensate their employees with ownership in the business, and simplifies the process when a small or mid-sized business is sold. The bipartisan bill passed the House on Wednesday by a vote of 265-159.
Finally, on Thursday the House passed the Financial Institution Consumer Protection Act of 2016, sponsored by Rep. Luetkemeyer. This bipartisan bill passed 250-169 and prevents abuses by federal banking agencies that are choking off access to financial services for legally operating businesses. It was introduced to stop the Department of Justice’s “Operation Choke Point” campaign, which targets legal businesses the Obama Administration doesn’t like. “We are debating a bill on the floor of the House that says the government can’t force banks to shut down legal banking accounts,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), as reported by the Daily Signal. “The fact that we have to have this debate frightens me.” To learn more about Operation Choke Point in just 60 seconds, watch the Committee’s video by clicking here.
Committee Approves Budget Views and Estimates
The Committee approved its views and estimates for the Fiscal Year 2017 budget on Wednesday, noting the nation is on a collision course with a fiscal crisis “unless Congress and the President work together to get government spending under control.” The Committee’s work will “guide our efforts to help low and middle-income Americans pursue happiness and achieve the American Dream of financial independence,” said Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). To view the Committee’s FY 2017 Budget Views and Estimates, click here.
Subcommittee Examines Administration’s Campaign to Mislead Americans on Nation’s Debt
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held a hearing on Tuesday to examine the Obama Administration’s efforts to misled Congress and the American people about its ability to prioritize payments during negotiations over the nation’s debt ceiling. A staff report released the day before the Subcommittee’s hearing details how “Treasury for political purposes tried to suppress the existence of backup plans,” US News and World Report said in its coverage.
In his opening statement at the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Sean Duffy (R-WI) said, “The American people deserve much better. Our nation’s creditworthiness should not be hindered by the Administration’s lack of trustworthiness.”
CNBC called the staff report “a trove of new documentation unearthed by congressional Republicans” that “give the public a first look at the extent of the government’s detailed planning for a debt crisis.”
“At the same time that Treasury was insisting to Congress and the American people that prioritization is unworkable, Treasury and New York Fed officials were working behind the scenes on a prioritization plan,” the staff report concluded.
Terror Financing Task Force Examines Trading with the Enemy
The Task Force to Investigate Terror Financing held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss trade-based money laundering, a method being used to finance terror and criminal operations around the world.
“Building on what we know and have learned, this session will take a much closer look at several lesser known methodologies that had been mentioned in previous briefings and hearings, including: trade-based money laundering, terror funding streams from Latin America, developing our regional partners’ capabilities to combat terror financing and the funding of foreign based terrorists,” remarked Chairman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) in his opening statement. “This hearing marks the beginning of another six months of investigation, and an additional step toward snubbing out the resources necessary for these nefarious groups to grow and thrive.”
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Rep. Roger Williams | To our next president: Help us realize our full potential
As a second-generation small business owner, I have seen firsthand the effects of this failed Obama economy: regulations have increased and Main Street businesses have closed. Washington issues on average one regulation every two hours – most of which are not done by our lawmaking body of government but by unelected federal bureaucrats in the executive branch.
Weekend Must Reads
The Daily Caller| There’s Some Hot Competition For America’s Worst Federal Agency
Ask Americans what the worst federal agency is and odds are it will be the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but there is another that may actually be worse: the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The Heritage Foundation | Regulation Is Holding Back a Real Housing Recovery
Seven years after its collapse, the U.S. housing market still has not experienced areal recovery. The heavy-handed and misguided federal policy that was supposed to cure the problem is instead the main culprit in preventing a recovery. Thanks, Dodd-Frank!
American Enterprise Institute | Reaching America’s potential: Delivering growth and opportunity for all Americans
If any proposition generates a bipartisan consensus, perhaps it is that economic growth in the United States has been too low. We were reminded of this just last week when we learned that GDP increased at only 0.7 percent in 2015:Q4.
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