Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, August 22, 2012 - The following editorial appeared in the Aug. 22, 2012 edition of the Charleston Daily Mail:

Wall Street regulation is felt on Main Street

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown, Democrats were in control of both houses of Congress. They passed another law to rein in the banking industry, already highly regulated.

The Dodd-Frank law did not simply rein in the big banks whose behavior brought on trouble. It also affected small community banks, credit unions and sellers of manufactured homes.

In her capacity as chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito held a hearing in Charleston on how the Wall Street law has hurt businesses on Main Street.

Sen. Joe Manchin also participated in the hearing.

"Of all the challenges we face today, coping with compliance tops the list," said Tom Brewer, president and chief executive officer of Peoples Federal Credit Union of Nitro.

"There's nothing in the regulations today that you could consider positive for business growth."

William Loving, president and chief executive officer of Pendleton Community Bank in Franklin, echoed that sentiment.

"I can't think of one aspect of our bank that is not touched by regulation," Loving said. "My staff spends more time on regulatory compliance than it did before 2008. I can assure you our bank did not have anything to do" with the financial crisis.

Among other provisions in the new law is a doubling of the size of the deposit insurance fund, an action that will take as much as $50 billion out of the earnings and capital of the financial industry.

The banks that were "too big to fail" caused the near collapse of the economy four years ago.

But Congress, in over-regulating the little guys, is just making the economy worse.