Today, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a Financial Institutions Subcommittee field hearing, led by Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr (KY-06), to examine the critical role community banks play in supporting Main Street America and the unique challenges they face under the current federal regulatory framework.
Read Subcommittee Chairman Barr's opening remarks as prepared for delivery:
"I would like to thank everyone for joining us today, whether in person or tuning in remotely, for this Financial Institutions Subcommittee hearing in Richmond, Kentucky, in my home district.
"I also would like to extend my sincere thanks to Eastern Kentucky University for graciously hosting us in its Center for the Arts on this beautiful campus.
"Today, we are here to discuss the Main Street Capital Access Act and how the bipartisan House-passed legislation strengthens community banks across the country.
"This bill is exactly the kind of targeted reform needed to advance this Committee’s goal to Make Community Banking Great Again.
"Community banks represent the financial backbone of this country. They finance farms, factories, family businesses, and first-time homebuyers. These institutions don’t just serve communities—they are part of them, as we will hear from our witnesses today.
"But here’s the hard truth: federal regulators have not always been treating them that way. For years, regulators have been writing rules as if every bank in America is a trillion dollar global institution—and then acting surprised when community banks disappear. That’s the result of a regulatory culture that forgot who the system is supposed to serve.
"The Main Street Capital Access Act is about changing that.
"The goal is simple: regulation should follow risk, not size, not zip code, and not political fashion. A $500 million community bank in rural Kentucky should not be regulated under the same framework built for a GSIB.
"Community banks in Kentucky and across our nation face burdensome capital rules and a supervisory framework designed for large, global institutions. That means higher costs, fewer loans, and more forced consolidation. This hurts American consumers by reducing access to credit and opportunities for small business growth.
"We intend to rectify this issue with our community bank package.
"The Main Street Capital Access Act opens the door for new bank formation—improving transparency in the chartering process, making applications more predictable, and ensuring rural and underserved communities can once again see new institutions form instead of watching their local banks disappear.
"We are also restoring proportionality to regulation—updating capital, leverage, and enhanced prudential standards so they actually reflect a bank’s risk profile, not just an arbitrary asset threshold.
"That means less money spent on regulatory gymnastics, and more money available for loans in your communities. We are also bringing fairness and due process back to supervision. Banks should not be governed by unpublished examiner preferences.
"They should be governed by clear rules, risk-based testing, and transparent standards. You should know what you’re being judged on before you’re judged. That’s how a system governed by law is supposed to work.
"The Main Street Act also addresses the structural problems that are driving consolidation. It requires regulators to justify their actions and create clarity and predictability in the merger process so healthy banks can grow and troubled banks can find partners before they fail. And it ensures that when banks do fail, community banks are not shut out of resolution processes by design.
"Finally, this legislation recognizes the reality that innovation is happening whether Washington likes it or not. That is why it is critical that we remove outdated regulations and reform overly prescriptive supervision to ensure community banks can keep up with their customers’ changing preferences.
"Our legislation lets banks partner, modernize, and compete.
"The Main Street Capital Access Act is a critical step toward restoring the financial backbone of this country.
"For Kentucky, this is personal. Community banks are the financial infrastructure of rural America. When they thrive, small towns prosper. When they’re regulated out of existence, capital dries up and opportunity for local ownership disappears.
"I’m excited to continue the conversation with our four Kentucky-based witnesses on our panel today."
