Member Corner

The SEC’s budget is three times larger than it was 10 years ago. Is its performance three times better? Read more »

With a growing regulatory burden weighing our economy down, President Obama’s executive order #13563 issued in January was welcomed news.   That executive order requires government agencies to conduct cost-benefit analyses to ensure that the benefits of any rulemaking outweigh the costs.  It also requires that both new and existing regulations be accessible, consistent,… Read more »

The Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee met outside the Washington, D.C. beltway on Tuesday to ask community bankers and regulators if overly stringent federal bank examination standards are impeding an economic recovery. Read more »

Promises are unfulfilled while the costs are real By Rep. Sean Duffy It was one year ago today that President Obama signed the so-called "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010." Like other signature pieces of legislation of this administration, the name can be misleading. Like the so-called "stimulus" that stimulated nothing but more government debt, this… Read more »

The failures of the Dodd-Frank Act continue to mount. Dodd-Frank Risk Panel Delays Create ‘Guessing Game’ By Cheyenne Hopkins and Ian Katz - Jul 18, 2011 Posted at Bloomberg.com A team of regulators charged with preventing another financial crisis is fending off criticism it’s moving too slowly to identify the firms whose failure could pose a threat to the economy. The year-old… Read more »

 Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus today announced the Committee’s schedule for the remainder of July. “Our Committee will continue promoting policies that encourage growth, investment and new jobs, and we will remain focused on our important oversight duties,” said Chairman Bachus. The Committee schedule remains tentative and will depend upon witness… Read more »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the government bureaucracy that’s supposed to “nudge” you to make decisions about your life that it deems are correct) doesn’t start operating until July 21.  The President still has not even nominated someone to lead the agency yet.  But it does have an office softball team and it is hiring at a rate of more than 80 new government… Read more »

Yesterday, Financial Service Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus presided over a field hearing that highlighted the role of the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) in Hoover, Alabama in fighting cybercrime. “The National Computer Forensics Institute is providing valuable training to the state and local law enforcement officials who are our first line of defense against… Read more »

  The Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee gathered on Friday, June 24th for a hearing titled, "Oversight of the Mutual Fund Industry: Ensuring Market Stability and Investor Confidence". Subcommittee Chairman Scott Garrett stated the intent of the hearing was to “to focus …on different efforts and proposals meant to provide more certainty to… Read more »

Three national real estate groups voiced support for H.R.940, the U.S. Covered Bond Act, on Tuesday. Introduced by Congressman Scott Garrett, H.R. 940 would create a legislative framework to allow U.S. financial institutions to issue covered bonds.  Covered bonds are a form of debt in which specific assets – typically loans – are pooled for the benefit of bondholders. A joint letter… Read more »