Member Corner

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,… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… 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… Read more »