Jeb Hensarling

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 256, I call up the bill (H.R. 1256) to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to jointly adopt rules setting forth the application to cross-border swaps transactions of certain provisions relating to swaps that were enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I just want to urge all my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation to bring some relief to end users, promote economic growth and jobs, and make congressional intent clear. Again, I urge all of my colleagues to adopt it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I'm prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), also a member of the Agriculture Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott), who is the lead cosponsor of this bill from the Agriculture Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, at this time, I'm pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren), another leader on H.R. 634.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I now yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Grimm), an outstanding member of the Financial Services Committee and the coauthor and lead Republican on this legislation.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H.R. 634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2013, is bipartisan legislation. It will help provide America's job creators with greater certainty so that they can invest more in our still-struggling economy and help create desperately needed jobs for the millions who remain either unemployed or underemployed. Again, when our so-called recovery has produced 4 million fewer jobs than the average recovery of the last 70 years, clearly nothing is more important than finding solutions that will help grow our economy and create more and better jobs for those who need them. Americans want and deserve a healthier economy and a more secure future. But, regrettably, all too often Washington, either inadvertently or on purpose, creates piles and piles, mountains upon mountains of unnecessary red tape for our entrepreneurs or small business people and our job creators. Quite often, Madam Speaker, this institution makes the goal of economic growth and job creation more difficult. But the bipartisan bill before us today is helpful. It is needed to help protect manufacturers, ranchers, thousands of Main Street businesses across the Nation from unnecessary red tape that would divert their resources and time away from the activities to make their businesses successful and thus create more jobs. One manufacturer told the Financial Services Committee earlier this year, a Mr. Thomas Deas, who works for a chemical manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, he testified before our committee that without H.R. 634, manufacturers and other end-users of derivatives, which this legislation deals with, would be forced to comply with unnecessary regulation that he said ``means less funding is available to grow their businesses and expand employment.'' Now, improving the Dodd-Frank Act, regardless of its relative merit, it did at least make clear that Congress intended that manufacturers, ranchers, and, again, Main Street businesses that this bill is intended to address, that they would not be subject to certain regulations regarding margin requirements for end-users of derivatives. Still, despite Congress' clear intent on the subject, such requirements have been proposed by Washington regulators. And so this resulting legislation would contain provisions that would modify and provide greater clarity to the Dodd-Frank Act regarding the intentions of Congress in dealing with the end-user exemption. We have heard from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, who stated before the Senate Banking Committee earlier this year that because the Dodd-Frank Act is ``a very big, complicated piece of legislation'' that regulators like the Federal Reserve needed ``clarity'' from Congress on what ``to do about end-users.'' So H.R. 634 provides that clarity by stating clearly that end-users of derivatives shall be exempt from the onerous margin requirements imposed by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. As I said earlier, Madam Speaker, this is a bill with very strong bipartisan support. The Financial Services Committee reported this bill out of committee on a recorded vote of 59-0. Let me repeat that, Madam Speaker: the Financial Services Committee reported this bill out of committee on a recorded vote of 59-0. Likewise, the Agriculture Committee approved this bill on a voice vote, meaning it has received no opposition in either committee. And, Madam Speaker, I should note that this substantially similar legislation was overwhelmingly passed by the House last year with 370 bipartisan votes. In closing, I want to thank our colleague, Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, for advancing this bipartisan bill on which our committees share jurisdiction. And I also want to thank the bipartisan supporters of this bill, particularly the gentleman from New York (Mr. Grimm) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Peters), who are outstanding leaders in our committee, as well as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Austin Scott), the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre), leaders on the Agriculture Committee. H.R. 634 is sound policy, and it is necessary to ensure that regulators do not further hurt our economy by forcing manufacturers, ranchers, and Main Street businesses to needlessly divert resources away from creating more and better jobs for an American public that is more than ready for them. Madam Speaker, I urge the House to approve this needed bipartisan legislation today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous materials for the Record on H.R. 634, as amended, currently under consideration.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 634) to provide end user exemptions from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I'm ready to close. I just simply want to thank my two colleagues for their bipartisan leadership on this bill, something that is going to be very important to sustainable housing, the fiscal sanity of the FHA, and for a number of our consumers as well. I urge the House to adopt the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick), the vice chair of our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and the lead cosponsor of this bill.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bipartisan H.R. 2167, the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013, introduced by our colleagues, Mr. Heck of Washington and Mr. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. H.R. 2167 provides authority to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make administrative and policy changes to the FHA's Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program through a mortgagee letter rather than the arduous 18-month regulatory process. The bill sets conditions that FHA can only use this new authority when immediate changes are necessary to improve the fiscal safety and soundness of the program. And, Madam Speaker, immediate changes that improve the fiscal safety and soundness of this program are exactly what is needed. In our efforts in this Congress and on the Financial Services Committee to help create a sustainable and competitive housing finance system for Americans, our committee and its Housing and Insurance Subcommittee have held a series of hearings this year on the financial problems at the FHA. In its current form, FHA is most definitely an impediment to a sustainable and competitive housing finance system. Because of this, the Financial Services Committee has been working to examine needed reforms to FHA, reforms that go beyond its fiscal solvency and address serious structural flaws at the FHA. There is one thing that we know for certain about FHA: the FHA is not just broke; regrettably, it is bailout broke. This is not just my conclusion; it is the conclusion of the annual independent actuarial study of the FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund--the government fund that insures the FHA's single-family mortgages. This actuarial study shows us ``the economic value of the fund as of FY 2012 is negative $13.48 billion.'' The same actuarial report states that the economic value of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portion of the fund--which H.R. 2167 addresses--is ``negative $2.8 billion.'' Again, bailout broke. Madam Speaker, H.R. 2167, which has strong bipartisan support, is a first and modest step in stemming substantial losses from FHA. It provides the tools needed to allow the agency to immediately address serious and significant flaws with its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program that threaten hardworking taxpayers with being forced to fund yet another Washington bailout. That's why, Madam Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 2167 today. The Secretary of HUD has testified that HUD needs this authority from Congress to make immediate changes. As I said, without H.R. 2167, it could take up to 18 months for these vital, needed changes to be made, during which the FHA would continue to lose money. I thank the bipartisan supporters and authors of this bill for their leadership and for their support in order to help protect taxpayers and improve and reform the FHA program. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous materials for the Record on H.R. 2167 currently under consideration.

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2167) to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to establish additional requirements to improve the fiscal safety and soundness of the home equity conversion mortgage insurance program.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, regrettably for the American people, they see a nonrecovery recovery. Millions of our fellow citizens remain unemployed and underemployed. That's why House Republicans are working to make the Tax Code fairer, flatter, simpler, more competitive, so America can go back to work, but so far we're hearing silence from the White House. We want red tape reform. That is strangling small business people. Madam Speaker, I heard one small business person in my district say, ``It's just like the Federal Government doesn't want me to succeed.'' We need to unchain them. We need to cut the red tape and allow them to create jobs. Finally, the Affordable Care Act is not affordable for our American citizens. It is not affordable to small businesses. It is harming job creation and costing trillions of dollars and potentially millions of jobs. Republicans want to repeal it. This is an agenda to help create jobs for America when Americans need growth, hope, and opportunity.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize Mr. Bob McDonald from Athens, Texas. Mr. McDonald is to be commended for his work to support and maintain the historic Athens Cemetery in Henderson County, Texas. A retired engineer, Mr. McDonald began his work at the cemetery at a time when it was badly in need of refurbishment. He designed and oversaw the installation of a new sprinkler system, a new brick entry and wrought-iron fencing, a columbarium, and numerous other improvements. For more than fifteen years, he has played a vital role in the cemetery's operation, serving as treasurer, public liaison, and overseer of the grounds. Mr. McDonald also spearheaded efforts to research and classify the cemetery's interments so that visitors could easily find the graves they sought. He also created a roster of veterans buried at the cemetery that dates back to 1850, which is sorted according to the conflict in which the veterans served. Mr. McDonald also volunteers his time at the East Texas Arboretum, and is a former member of the Trinity Valley Community College Board of Trustees. He was honored as the Athens Citizen of the Year in 1999. I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the entire 5th Congressional District of Texas, to thank Mr. Bob McDonald for his dedicated philanthropy to the citizens of Henderson County, Texas.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, due to a family issue that required my attention, I missed several votes on May 20, 2013. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote 161, ``yea'' on rollcall vote 162, and ``yea'' on rollcall vote 163.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, today I thank Chelsea Brown for her years of service to me, my constituents, the House Republican Conference, the House Committee on Financial Services, and the United States Congress. Chelsea is one of the most dedicated and loyal people I've had the honor of having on my staff since I was elected to Congress. Few, if any, individuals devoted more hours of their life to my legislative career and to the service of my constituents. Chelsea joined my staff as a scheduler and office manager in January of 2007. As my colleagues appreciate, the job of a congressional scheduler is one of the most challenging assignments on the Hill. Throughout the years, Chelsea's proactive nature and attention to detail allowed me to maximize both my effectiveness as a legislator and my ability to spend more time with my family. My children, Claire and Travis, can attest to the asset that Chelsea was to my team. She went out of her way to make my family feel welcome when they visited my office in Washington each summer, and I have no doubt that Claire and Travis will fondly remember how ``Miss Chelsea'' made visiting their dad's office such an enjoyable experience. Because of her excellent work in my personal office, I asked Chelsea to join my staff at the House Republican Conference when I served as Chairman, and asked her to come along again when I became Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Regardless of the task at hand, Chelsea could always be trusted to get the job done, no matter what. Her strong character, discretion, and work ethic have made her an asset to me over the last six years. I can assure you that she will be sorely missed. Chelsea, thank you for your service and dedication to the cause of individual liberty, and thank you for being such an invaluable member of my team. I wish you the best of luck in your future personal and professional endeavors.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of the time, although I will alert my colleagues I do not intend to take it all. Mr. Chairman, I find it somewhat interesting the great amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth that we have heard on this House floor for a very simple bill that weighs in at, frankly, less than 10 pages that simply requires a government agency to decide is there going to be a cost to our economy, is there going to be a loss of jobs as they pass a rule. It doesn't overturn their rules. It just says, before you make a rule, you've really got to think about kitchen-table economics. You've got to take a look at and understand how will this ultimately impact hardworking Americans who are struggling to pay their health care bills, struggling to put gas in the tank and who have economic insecurity due to this economy. So I've heard a lot of furor here. I must admit I'm particularly entertained by those who care to lecture me on what it means to be a conservative. Maybe I'm not the world's expert, but there was a time in my career my fellow colleagues elected me the chairman of the Conservative Caucus of the House, known as the Republican Study Committee. And, Mr. Chairman, I have a certificate in my office that I proudly display from the Americans for Democratic Action where they say Congressman Hensarling receives a zero percent liberal rating. So I will certainly agree with my friends that, apparently, I don't know much about liberalism, but I do think I do know a few things about conservatism. So I'll come up with an informal agreement. We'll let you be the experts on what it means to be a liberal--and you're very good at it, to the best of my knowledge--and I will retain the expertise on how one votes conservative. The next thing I would say, Mr. Chairman, is how fascinating it is to have so many of my colleagues say that this bill, on the one hand, is unnecessary, but, on the other hand, it's burdensome; on the one hand, it's redundant, but, on the other hand, it will stop the SEC in its tracks. Mr. Chairman, I just don't think you can quite have it both ways. I notice when some can't argue the merits of a question, they tend to come up to question one's motivation, and we've got the usual Wall Street bogeymen to come in here. But what I want to know about is why, why would we not want to know, as some have estimated, that the Volcker rule promulgated by the SEC potentially could cost 1.1 million jobs in our Nation? And yet my colleagues from the other side of the aisle say, Shh, no, no, no, no, no. We don't want this information. We don't want it out. Just like we didn't want out the information that ObamaCare could cost us 1 million jobs. And we see it every day. We get the headlines: people can't afford their health care, their premiums have gone up; people are getting laid off; people who had full-time jobs are going to part-time; and people who would have hired more people don't want to cross that 50-person threshold. And that's just ObamaCare. But, no, shh, we don't want--we don't want to know how this is going to impact hardworking Americans who have economic insecurity, millions who do not have jobs. I am somewhat perplexed, Mr. Chairman, how such a simple bill that says all you've got to do is look at the cost--we're not imposing our numbers on them. We're just saying you've got to look at the cost of what you do. It's what families do; it is what job creators do; and, frankly, it's what the administration claimed they wanted to do, and it's what the SEC claimed they wanted to do. How many of my Democratic colleagues with their words say ``yes'' but very soon with their voting card are going to say ``no''? No, we shouldn't know the cost of rulemaking. No, we just want to know what bureaucrats say the benefits are. But, you know, if people lose their jobs, well, que sera, sera. We just aren't going to--we don't want to know that ahead of time. Maybe we'll learn about it afterwards. Maybe we'll try to clean up the pieces, the shattered lives of people who lost their jobs. Mr. Chairman, this is a false dichotomy set up by many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. The question is not between regulation and deregulation. The question is between smart regulation and dumb regulation. And smart regulation requires the rule makers to understand the cost of their rules to the average, hardworking American family. That's smart regulation. Dumb regulation is burying your head in the sand and saying, no, we don't want to know. If we're so concerned about the burden on the SEC, if we're so concerned about the litigation burden, and if we're so concerned about the work burden and the rule burden, where's this same concern for the job creators of America? Where is that concern? You cannot help the job seeker by punishing the job creator, which is what so many of the different titles of Dodd-Frank do. So at the end of the day, Mr. Chairman, this is as simple and as common sense as it could be. If you're going to pass a rule and you're going to tell us about the benefits, you've got to let us know what the costs are to the economy and to hardworking American families. It's common sense. We should adopt it. We should adopt it today. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I'm under the impression I have the right to close, so the gentlelady has reserved. I will reserve until she is ready to close.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield 1 minute to the author of the bill, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mr. HENSARLING. I reserve the balance of my time.