By Rep. Robert Hurt At a time when uncertainty from Washington has led us to nearly three-and-a-half years of more than 8 percent unemployment nationally, folks in Washington, D.C., are still calling for higher taxes and a bigger federal government that will only lead to more uncertainty. Just this past week, I traveled along Route 40, stopping in Kenbridge, Victoria, Keysville, Charlotte Court House, Phenix, Brookneal, Gretna, Penhook and Rocky Mount. Having met with local business owners, local officials and families along the way, I can tell you that the private sector is not doing fine in ... Read More »
One of the most significant accomplishments of the Financial Services Committee during the 112th Congress is passage of the JOBS Act. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) removes government barriers to job creation and economic activity. The JOBS Act, comprised of six bills that originated in and were originally approved by the Committee, is designed to help startups and entrepreneurs get off the ground, access capital and create jobs. These initiatives all received strong bipartisan support in Congress and from the President’s Jobs Council and the business community. The JOBS Ac... Read More »
Rep. Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, on Thursday responded to criticism that regulators have completed “less than half” of the 400 new regulations in the Dodd-Frank Act by blaming House Republicans for cutting the budgets of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). “It is true that when the Republicans took over the House, they cut the funding for two of the most important agencies that got new responsibilities.” -- Rep. Frank, CNBC’s “Closing Bell” July 26, 2012 Here are the facts about funding: SEC FUN... Read More »
Sen. Kaufman: From “Aye” on Dodd-Frank to “Will Not Protect Us” in Just 2 Years For someone who voted for the Dodd-Frank Act, former Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) sure doesn’t have many nice things to say about the massive 2,300-page law. Marking the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s signing of the Dodd-Frank Act, Senator Kaufman used a guest column in The Hill to level strong criticisms against the law. As to whether Dodd-Frank ended “too big to fail” (a claim made repeatedly by many supporters of the law), Senator Kaufman is direct in his assessment: Absolutely not. He writes: “So are... Read More »
With this month marking the second anniversary of passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Financial Services Committee is focusing attention throughout July on the burdens this law’s 2,300 pages and more than 400 new rules layer on American companies, financial markets and consumers. Supporters of Dodd-Frank sold it to the public as “tough Wall Street reform,” but in reality its red tape hurts businesses and small town banks far from Wall Street that had nothing to do with the 2008 financial crisis. Small town banks like Gothenburg State Bank in Gothenburg, Nebraska. This bank is 1,362 miles from W... Read More »
The JOBS Act, passed by Congress and signed by the President earlier this year, reduces government barriers to entrepreneurship, innovation and capital formation. It combines six separate proposals that originated in the Financial Services Committee into one bill. These six proposals were part of the Committee’s plan announced in January 2011 to help small companies gain greater access to the capital that is necessary for them to grow and hire workers. One of those six proposals, the Small Company Capital Formation Act sponsored by Rep. David Schweikert, makes it easier for small companies to ... Read More »
The bipartisan JOBS Act arrives just in time to help small, community banks as they are “struggling to stay profitable in a period of low interest rates, stagnant lending and rising compliance costs from other new regulations,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act originated in the Financial Services Committee and is the culmination of an initiative started by Chairman Spencer Bachus last year to promote small business capital formation. The Wall Street Journal article takes particular note of one provision of the JOBS Act that raises the number of sh... Read More »
Not to be missed is Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune editorial on the JOBS Act, a package of six bills from the Financial Services Committee that will promote innovation, economic growth and jobs. The JOBS Act – short for Jumpstart Our Business Startups – is a “rare example of bipartisanship” in today’s Washington, the newspaper writes, that would cut red tape for small businesses and emerging growth companies. Even though the JOBS Act passed the House of Representatives on March 8 by a vote of 390-23 and has the backing of President Obama, some Democrats in the Senate are intent on delaying action... Read More »
What happens when you don’t pay your mortgage? Apparently, nothing for a long time due, in part, to government programs and policies that can drag out the foreclosure process for years. The result is a growing backlog of foreclosures and a weak-to-nonexistent recovery in home prices. That’s what readers of the Washington Post learned over the weekend in a story about a Maryland couple who have lived in a $1.3 million dollar mansion for five years but have never once made a mortgage payment on the custom-built, 4,900 square foot, five bedroom “manse along the Potomac River” described in the sto... Read More »
An electric utility in Texas. A housing authority in Connecticut. A water treatment project on the banks of the Potomac River. What do all three have in common? They all could be harmed by the Volcker Rule. While the Volcker Rule is touted as a central part of Washington’s effort to get “tough” on Wall Street, it’s become the latest example of how the Dodd-Frank Act and its 400+ regulations have spawned a multitude of unintended consequences. What kind of unintended consequences? “State and local officials say the new regulation, known as the Volcker Rule, could make it more expensive for them... Read More »
