Press Releases

Yesterday, the House Committee on Financial Services, led by Chairman French Hill (AR-02), examined how the Trump Administration’s economic and regulatory policies are shaping the economy and highlighted Committee Republicans’ efforts to provide the certainty businesses and financial institutions need to invest, innovate, and support long-term economic growth.

On Economic Growth and Legislative Solutions:

Chairman Hill said, “Since President Trump took office, this administration has renewed its focus on investment and innovation, moving quickly to replace the regulatory uncertainty of the past four years with clear rules and common sense. That greater clarity has strengthened confidence in our markets and reinforced the resilience of our financial system... Committee Republicans have [also] put in the hard work to advance bills strengthening our capital markets, modernizing regulation, expanding housing supply, supporting community financial institutions, and promoting American leadership in financial innovation.”

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Dan Meuser (PA-09) said, “Under Chairman Hill’s leadership, the Financial Services Committee, has advanced many pieces of legislation, including the Main Street Capital Access Act, the GENIUS Act, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and the INVEST Act, which support long-term economic growth, financial stability, and provide a higher level of certainty for investors and consumers. Together, these efforts reflect the Committee’s commitment to moving financial policy away from a biased government-driven market distortion toward supply-side growth, capital formation, expanded access to capital, and, as we say, doing our best to ‘Make Community Banks Great Again’.”

On Community Banking and Capital Formation:

Full Committee Vice Chairman Bill Huizenga (MI-04) said, “This Committee has worked for the last two years to make community banking work better for Main Street America. We enacted significant community bank reforms throughout the bipartisan [21st Century] ROAD to Housing Act. The House passed the Main Street Capital Access Act to encourage new bank formation, right-size regulation, modernize outdated thresholds, bring greater objectivity to bank supervision, and, hopefully, make them business decisions and not regulator and DEI kind of decisions.”

Rep. Roger Williams (TX-25) said, “Throughout the United States, local community banks are the lifeblood of their towns, funding the family businesses, farms, and entrepreneurs that fuel Main Street. And for years, Washington bureaucrats have treated community banks like they are big Wall Street investment firms, piling on regulations created for large-scale institutions. This has stifled local lending, accelerated consolidation, and created banking deserts across rural America. … The Main Street Capital Access Act right-sizes these regulations by restoring commonsense tailoring and not punishing community banks with more burdensome compliance.”

Task Force on Monetary Policy, Treasury Markets Resilience, and Economic Stability Chairman Frank Lucas (OK-03) said, “The INVEST Act includes my bill providing parity between the investments available to 403(b) plans and other comparable retirement plans like 401(k)s. Workers who rely on 403(b) plans, like teachers, healthcare workers, and nonprofit employees, should have access to the same investment products available to others so they can save and prepare for the future. It is past time to send the bill to the President’s desk.”

Witnesses Echoed the Committee’s Priorities

The Honorable Heath Tarbert, President, Circle, said, “The House-passed CLARITY Act, and the various Senate texts now building on it, pursue several common objectives. They allocate regulatory jurisdiction between the securities and commodities regulators along a line that tracks how these instruments actually function. They create a viable, onshore regulatory framework for covered intermediaries—with customer protection, custody, and conflict-of-interest requirements attached. And they extend established illicit-finance authorities to covered intermediaries and activities, so those authorities apply here as clearly as they do elsewhere.”

The Honorable Kathleen Kraninger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Florida Bankers Association, said, “I thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for their leadership on the [21st Century] ROAD to Housing and its community-banking provisions, and the Chairman and other committee members for the great work on the bipartisan Main Street Capital Access bill. Seeing that bill become law would also make a measurable difference in modernizing regulatory requirements and reducing unnecessary burdens that just take time away from better serving customers.”

Ms. Lynn Martin, President, New York Stock Exchange, said, “America's public markets work because they are built on a bedrock of trust: trust that our markets are transparent, that rules are applied consistently, and that every investor, whether managing a billion-dollar pension fund or investing a first paycheck, has a fair shot at participating in the growth of the American economy. Protecting and strengthening that trust is the responsibility of everyone in this room. With continued support from our leaders here in Washington, we can continue to remove unnecessary barriers to going public. We can expand the circle of investors who can participate in high-growth opportunities. We can bring clarity and certainty to the digital asset economy. And we can send a message to the world that when it comes to capital formation, the United States remains the preeminent destination, and intends to stay that way.”

Mr. Alex Pollock, Senior Fellow, Mises Institute, said, “I was glad to see the community bank provisions of the [21st Century ROAD to Housing] Act, which were added by the House and this Committee. The community banking sector is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the American financial system, giving it a local presence and dispersed credit decision-making, and therefore a systemic role in promoting opportunity. There are, by the FDIC’s count, now 3,818 community banks, or approximately 90% of all U.S. insured banks and savings institutions. The number of community banks has dramatically fallen in recent decades; it is down by more than half from the 8,315 in the year 2000, for example. Helping maintain the vitality of this sector is a key goal. An important provision of this title of the act is encouraging the chartering of new banks. While new entry is always desirable, I believe this is especially relevant in times of banking system troubles, when the system needs new capacity and new capital, unencumbered by past cyclical mistakes.”