Jeb Hensarling

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney), an outstanding member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff), a very hardworking member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), an outstanding member of the Ways and Means Committee and chair of the Congressional Auto Caucus.

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

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is rare, but I have found common ground with the ranking member; and the common ground is I have never heard such outrageous comments on the House floor as other Members of the other side of the aisle come and accuse us of defending discrimination? Number one, almost half of her caucus supported S.J. Res. 57 to get rid of this in the last Congress. And I hope every single car dealer in America is listening to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have come down here on the House floor to accuse them of racism. With what? The proof of a report that has a universe of two? Again, it makes a mockery of the Equal Opportunity Credit Act. And for those to come to the House floor and say they are appalled by discrimination? Well, where were they when the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection was accused of having a pervasive culture of retaliation and intimidation? They were found to engage in discrimination, but what did we hear from the other side of the aisle? We heard crickets. We heard crickets, Mr. Speaker. Now, what is next? What are we going to hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle next? Are we going to hear that every pharmacist in America is a Fascist? Are we going to hear that every single doctor in America is engaged in spousal abuse? Where is the proof? People are trying to sell cars and help them get into transportation. And, oh, by the way, Mr. Speaker, almost every American now has one of these. Go to your smartphone and Google ``auto finance.'' And guess what? At least on mine, it comes up State Farm, Lending Tree, Bank of America, Chase, RoadLoans. Nobody forces you to take the financing package of the dealer, even though often it is a better choice than other lenders. It is so easy, Mr. Speaker, to come to the floor and say, My Lord, the charge is serious; therefore, you must be guilty until proven innocent. This is an embarrassing day for the House, Mr. Speaker, absolutely embarrassing, and we ought to stand for the rule of law. When my friends on the other side of the aisle so jealously guard the sanctity of Dodd-Frank, why haven't we heard their voice today? Why aren't they defending Dodd-Frank today? Because Dodd-Frank, itself, as coming down from Mount Sinai said, Thou shall not regulate auto dealers. And so now we are throwing Dodd-Frank overboard. We are calling auto dealers racists. It is, indeed, outrageous comments. And to come here to the House floor and so recklessly make that accusation is an outrage, and it is why we need to ensure that S.J. Res. 57 is voted on affirmatively today. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I am humbled to honor former First Lady Barbara Bush--Barbara Bush had unparalleled style and grace. Not only was she our First Lady, but a fiercely loyal wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. As a fellow Texan, I am proud of her leadership for our country and her unparalleled commitment to childhood literacy. Her leadership while in the White House was impactful and her work for her foundation has helped countless children. I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Bush on a few occasions and am saddened to hear of her passing. While she may no longer be here with us on earth, we can be certain she is with our Heavenly Father--her memory will continue to live in the hearts and minds of the American people.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, another day, another strong bipartisan bill presented to the House by the House Financial Services Committee. I take great pride in that fact. Today, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4790, the Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act. I want to thank, first, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) for his leadership on the issue and so many other issues in front of our committee. And I want to thank his bipartisan partner, the Democrat gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster) for his leadership on his side of the aisle on this very important piece of legislation. As a result of their hard work, this bill was reported out of our committee, Mr. Speaker, 50-10, which means 80 percent--80 percent--of our colleagues on the committee supported the legislation, including a majority of the Democrats. Now, Mr. Speaker, we enjoy, in America, the deepest, strongest, and most liquid capital markets, frankly, the world has ever known, and that helps us have a very strong, strong progrowth economy. Our capital markets are vital; vital to the job growth and job- creating machine in America. Our capital markets provide very important funding to Main Street businesses and to entrepreneurs for short-term operations and long-term growth. Main Street businesses, for example, like an equipment and party rental store in my district, whose owner is named Arlis, who told me, ``The number one issue for me to keep the doors open is access to capital.'' That is why it is so critical that we ensure that he has access to capital. I also heard from Jeff from Henderson County in the Fifth District of Texas that I have the privilege of representing. He owns a farm and ranch store, and he explained, ``During the past year, I have been able to expand my business location and double my inventory. I have been able to hire additional employees as I grow. Without access to credit, things like this would not be possible.'' Just two quick little vignettes about how in our economy capital formation, access to credit, how important that is for the job engine of America. So again, Mr. Speaker, members of the House Financial Services Committee on both sides of the aisle have been working very hard on bipartisan pieces of legislation that can result in smarter, more efficient, more effective regulation that our hardworking taxpayers expect so that we can have robust capital formation and our job creators, our small business people like Jeff and Arlis, can continue to grow and prosper. H.R. 4790 is just one example of this type of legislation. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4790 will streamline the regulatory authority set forth in section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, a section more commonly known as the Volcker rule. It provides a framework that will provide increased regulatory clarity for entities that must comply with the Volcker rule. It does this by consolidating--consolidating-- rulemaking authority and interpretation with the Federal Reserve Board, and for purposes of examination and enforcement, designating the primary Federal regulator for a covered entity as the sole regulator in those capacities. The challenge here, Mr. Speaker, is that some entities can have as many as five different regulators interpreting the Volcker rule and five different regulators enforcing the Volcker rule. Sometimes they conflict with each other, Mr. Speaker, and, frankly, the entity doesn't know what to do. You cannot have an economy based on the rule of law when, frankly, you don't know what the law says. So the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) brings a very simple bill to the House floor that says we are going to have one--one--regulator in charge of interpreting the rules, and the primary regulator is going to be in charge of enforcing the rule. It is common sense. It creates efficiency. Now, I want to be clear about one thing: H.R. 4790 does not repeal the Volcker rule. I wish it did, but it doesn't. That is not what we are debating here today. Outside of providing important relief to community banks--bipartisan regulatory relief that, by the way, has already been approved by a strong two- thirds of our Senate colleagues--this bill doesn't require any changes to the Volcker rule itself. I highlight this because this legislation, again, represents something that Members of Congress should agree on, that regardless of how you stand on a particular rule or regulation, it at least ought to be clear, and there ought to be one interpretation and one enforcer of the rule so that you know what the rule is. You can't abide by the rule if you don't know what the rule is. This is only common sense, and it can only lead to, again, stronger, deeper, more liquid capital markets to help our job creators. So regardless of whether we support the Volcker rule or we wish to repeal it, hopefully, we can at least agree that it shouldn't be unnecessarily complex and burdensome and virtually impossible to abide by. And so that, again, is what H.R. 4790 is simply trying to do. Mr. Speaker, I commend this piece of legislation to all of my colleagues. It is a very important piece of legislation, again, strongly bipartisan. Eighty percent of the Members of the House Financial Services Committee support it. Again, I want to commend the leadership of the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), and with that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 811, I call up the bill (H.R. 4790) to amend the Volcker rule to give the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System sole rulemaking authority, to exclude community banks from the requirements of the Volcker rule, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds just to say I am not sure what bill the ranking member is debating. It does not appear to be H.R. 4790, and I have my own quotes. Paul Volcker, himself, said the Volcker rule is ``much more complicated than I would like to see.'' President Obama's Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, said: ``Implementation of the Volcker rule is, frankly, complex. . . .'' President Obama's Federal Reserve Governor Tarullo said: ``Several years of experience have convinced me that . . . the Volcker rule is too complicated.'' President Obama's former Comptroller of the Currency said the Volcker rule ``has been one of the most complex rulemakings I can remember being involved in.'' That is why we need to simplify it. Mr. Speaker, I am now very happy to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), the bill's sponsor, one of the hardest working and most knowledgeable members on our committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), who is the chairman of the Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Michigan an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy), chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Wisconsin an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren), who has come to actually speak on H.R. 4790 as opposed to H.R. red herring, the vice chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investments.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Emmer), another hardworking member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Pittenger), who is familiar with the eight-page bill and knows that H.R. 4790 does not repeal the Volcker rule. He happens to be the vice chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), the vice chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, the majority has three more speakers.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk), a great member of the Financial Services Committee.