In Case You Missed It

LINK TO STORY The 80-year old Export-Import Bank will begin to wind down on June 30, unless Congress renews it again. Republicans in the House and Senate need to let it expire—and as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, I am helping lead the charge to see that we do. Ex-Im arranges taxpayer-backed financing to… Read more »

    By Dallas Morning News Editorial Board June 1, 2015 Congress returns to its business facing a question that manifestly affects our business: How much should the federal government jam a meaty thumb onto the scale and favor one company over another? This is what the Export-Import Bank of the United States… Read more »

  By Wall Street Journal Editorial Board May 25, 2015 LINK TO STORY The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has again done the public service of toting up all the implied and explicit government guarantees backing the U.S. financial system. Are you sitting down? Richmond Fed researchers find that as of the end of 2013 taxpayers were standing behind nearly $26 trillion of financial… Read more »

    By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL May 1, 2015 LINK TO STORY   In October 2005, earmarks were a Washington fact of life. Then former Oklahoma Sen.Tom Coburn took to the floor to decry pork spending for Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere.” The phrase became a national rallying cry against government waste. It required another five years, but in… Read more »

  The Peculiar Uses of a Taxpayer Bank A look at the Export-Import Bank’s beneficiaries suggests that sometimes it works against U.S. interests abroad. By Mark Pfeifle Only in Washington can a prominent example of corporate welfare be described as a “critical element”… Read more »

Wall Street Journal: Hensarling Wants Quicker Responses From ‘Stonewalling’ Agencies The head of a key U.S. House committee, frustrated by “stonewalling” by federal agencies, is ramping up pressure on government officials to quickly comply with requests for information. Mr. Hensarling said the CFPB has had an “abysmal record of… Read more »

  CLICK HERE TO WATCH Seems like a perfectly reasonable question to ask:  Who authorized the CFPB to renovate its rented Washington headquarters? It’s a question Republicans on the Financial Services Committee have been asking for some time – because the Federal Reserve’s Inspector General reports the… Read more »

American Banker: Republicans Hammer Castro Over FHA Premium Reduction "Don't you care about those people? Are you so inclined to write more loans that you are just trying to entice them for $20 or $30 to get into a house that they can't afford?" "This is what brought us to this crisis in the first place and you are going down the exact same road." - Subcommittee Chairman Scott… Read more »

During yesterday’s hearing with the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, members of the Financial Services Committee continually raised concerns that misguided Washington policies are hurting taxpayers and homebuyers by putting them into homes they can’t afford to keep.  The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is today using many of the same practices employed by subprime… Read more »

Financial Services subcommittee chairmen Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) and Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) raised concerns with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro that FHA practices are putting taxpayers and homebuyers at… Read more »