- Key insight: The package includes measures that had already been considered by the committee, including a bill on brokered and custodial deposits and a number of measures aimed at relaxing oversight, particularly for community banks.
- What's at stake: The package is opposed by some Democrats, who argue the bill favors large banks as well as small ones, but the lawmakers said they are willing to keep working with Republicans on those issues.
- Forward look: The bill was reported favorably to the whole House, and if it passes would head to the Senate.
WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee voted 26-16 in favor of a package of bills that would favor small banks.
The vote sends the legislation to the full House with a favorable recommendation. The package — led by committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., and the panel's subcommittee on financial institutions chair Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. — includes many of the measures that were
Hill has made community banking a
"This bill simplifies outdated regulatory requirements that have crippled our community banks and local lenders over the past few decades, giving them the flexibility they need to get back to lending in our communities throughout the country, ensuring that small businesses and potential home buyers have the financing they need to prosper," Hill said.
It also includes reforms to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s
Despite wide bipartisan support for many of the measures included in the housing bill, this package did meet with some Democratic opposition. Democrats pointed to measures that relax regulations for large and small banks alike, rather than focusing regulatory relief on the community banks they are designed to help.
"We all care about community banks and credit unions, and I was pleased when you and I were able to work out an agreement to include a bipartisan package of 12 provisions and a housing package to support these community leaders," said committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., addressing Hill. "However, I'm disappointed that shortly after that, we are now considering this big deregulatory package made up of 30 Republican bills and just a few of Democrats, and instead of focusing on helping our community banks and credit unions, there's a wide range of sweeping deregulatory provisions which would benefit not only megabanks, but also undermines the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."
Nine of the provisions in the package were universally opposed by Democrats on the committee, and another seven are opposed by most Democratic lawmakers on the committee, Waters said.
"This so-called Main Street Capital Access Act appears to be the most sweeping form of bank deregulation since before the 2008 global financial crisis," she said. "In the nearly two decades since that crisis, we've learned a great deal about how to maintain a resilient financial system in the face of many obstacles, including through the pandemic. But this package ignores those lessons and will not only significantly roll back safeguards and oversight of the largest banks, but also undermine consumer protection and anti-discrimination measures."
Bank groups that represent small institutions support the package, as well as groups that have a membership base of larger banks.
The Bank Policy Institute said ahead of the markup that it supports provision in the package that would lessen capital, liquidity and risk management requirements according to size, and to update the regulatory tailoring thresholds set in Congress's 2018 tailoring bill. The bill would also make the Federal Reserve put stress testing scenarios up for notice and comment, and would make changes to the way that bank regulators review merger applications.
Waters at one point tried to drum up support among Republican colleagues to pass legislation that would increase oversight of the largest banks.
"Join with me in going after the big boys and the big banks, because I know you're not afraid of them, I know how tough you are, I know when you get started on something, you don't let up," she told Barr. "So I want to work with you on big banks — do you agree?"
"I'm grateful for all of the banks of all sizes," Barr said. "We need them all."
The markup comes a day after Senate Banking Committee Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told reporters that he's working with Hill on a
The package still faces a tough road to enactment, where Democrats have a stronger advantage in stalling legislation and a looming midterm election in which Democrats are widely favored to flip the House and could make inroads in the Senate. It's still possible that the bill will find enough Democratic support to cross the 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture and end debate on a bill, especially if further amendments sweeten the deal.
Rep. Bill Foster.D-Ill., for example, said that while he wasn't supporting the package on Wednesday, he supports many of the provisions in the bill.
"I will direct my staff to continue working and negotiating as this moves towards the floor," he said. "If it succeeds in the house and dies in the Senate — which is very common around here — then a lot of the things in this package are things that I think we should pick up and continue to work on in the next Congress."
