Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. House Of Representatives U.S. House 20180208

Eastern on cspan. Find it also at cspan. Org. Well leave now. The house is coming back in for several votes. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the vote on the passage of h. R. 1153 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk Union Calendar number 387, h. R. 1153, a bill to amend the truth in lending act to improve upon the definitions and fees in points connection with a mortgage transaction. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a 15minute vote. Connection [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ]. The speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 280. The nays are 131. The bill is passed, without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the Unfinished Business is the question on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal. Which the chair will put de novo. The question is on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. Own that qui the yeas and nays. On that i request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 208. The nays are 194. Two voting present. The journal stands approved. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Members will clear the aisles, remove their conversations from the floor. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Members will clear the aisles and remove their conversations from the floor. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Members will clear the aisles and remove their conversations from the floor. The speaker pro tempore the ouse will come to order. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas, mr. Hensarling, seek recognition . Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 725, i call up h. R. 4771 and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk Union Calendar number 408. H. R. 4771, a bill to raise the consolidated assets threshold under the Small Bank Holding Company policy statement, and or other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Members will clear the aisles and remove their conversations rom the floor. Pursuant to House Resolution 725, the amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of rules Committee Print 11557 is adopted, and the bill, as amended, is considered as read. The gentleman from texas, mr. Hensarling, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. Waters, each will control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Hensarling. Hens mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous materials on the bill under consideration. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, the house is not in order. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is correct. The house is not in order. The house will come to order. Members will remove themselves from the aisles and remove their conversations from the floor. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Hens mr. Speaker, mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i rise in strong support of h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act of 2018. It is a bipartisan bill which passed our committee with a strong bipartisan vote of 4114. Mr. Speaker, this exact same provision came out of the Senate Banking committee, also, with a very strong bipartisan vote of 167. First, i want to thank the gentlelady from utah, ms. Love, who is a very mrs. Love, who is a very hardworking member of the Financial Services committee. I want to thank her for introducing this legislation and helping lead our congressional efforts to provide regulate relief to our Nations Community banks. She is a great asset to our committee and widely respected. The Federal Reserve Small Bank Holding Company policy statement is a regulation that allows Certain Bank Holding Companies that have less than 1 billion in assets to hold more debt at the Holding Company level than would otherwise be permitted by current Capital Requirements. They do this as long as they meet a number of ongoing requirements and restrictions. H. R. 4771 would raise that threshold for qualifying institutions from 1 billion to 3 billion, thus allowing more Community Banks to raise more capital by the issuance of debt. By increasing this threshold, r. 4771 provides muchneeded relief for Bank Holding Companies from overly burdensome capital and leverage requirements that were truly intended, mr. Speaker, for the largest and most complex Global Financial institutions. It is a recurring problem, mr. Speaker, again, over and over, the regulate burden on our Community Financial institutions are causing us to lose one approximately every other day in america. These are rules that have made it, again, more difficult for small banks to raise capital. And while the Bank Holding Companies will no longer have to abide by these rules under this bill, again, there are plenty, plenty of safeguards that continue to be in place to protect the safety and soundness of the institution and its customers, but these institutions present no, no threat to the safety and soundness of our financial system. First and foremost, the Federal Reserve retains the right to impose capital standards on a Holding Company if they determine if it is needed. In other words, this is a may bill and not a shall bill. The 3 billion threshold remains totally within the discretion of the Federal Reserve. It is permissive. Next, capital rules and regulations will continue to apply to subsidiary banks of the Holding Company level. Again, let me repeat, the capital rules and regulations continue to apply to subsidiary banks. All institutions must continue to meet certain qualitative requirements, including those pertaining to nonbanking activities, off Balance Sheet activities, and publicly registered debt and equity. These requirements ensure the higher leverage the policy statement allows does not pose ny undue burden on any institutions. So the Small Bank Holding Company relief will indeed make it easier for small hometown Community Banks to raise capital, and as they raise more capital, they can turn it into more main street jobs, more Economic Growth, more homeownership opportunities for our constituents. In fact, passing this bill will immediately benefit Community Banks all across america, not the big banks, not wall street banks, as i have no doubt the Ranking Member will say in her remarks. But, again, it will be Community Banks that will benefit. If you dont believe me, ask them. Ask the independent Community Bankers of america and its 5,700 Community Bank members. As a matter of fact, the passage of this bill, mrs. Loves bill, has been an important, longstanding goal of the independent Community Bankers of america because they have been suffering and suffocated by an avalanche of red tape with massive increases in regulate burdens which is caused has caused consolidation with much, much larger competitors. Because of the increased regulation and compliance costs, again, many of them have found it difficult to access and raise capital. This is the capital that is needed to capitalize our Small Businesses. Small businesses are struggling for access to credit, and the incredible regulate burden placed on homebuyers has simply complicated the buying process. And these higher costs are being felt at the same time that paychecks are now beginning to grow for working families, thanks to the tax cut and jobs act. But dont take my word for it, mr. Speaker. Lets listen to just one Community Banker who happens to be from west virginia. And they wrote in and said, quote, what no one in a position of power seems to realize is that many customers in our country prefer to deal with a smaller hometown institution with people they know and trust. If a customer has a question about their loan or their deposit, they simply pick up the phone and call or drop by. If we dont know the answer we find out and we let them know as soon as possible. But it appears that congress and the administration are attempting to get rid of smaller institutions so there are a lot fewer institutions to deal with and those are the to e ones who are too big fail, and, mr. Speaker, thats what happened under the doddfrank act. Continuing to quote. Please remember that small Financial Institutions and Small Businesses are the heart of america. The American Dream is to work hard, learn, and make a good life for yourself and your family. In the meantime, it includes working in your community or neighborhood to help others out. Even as a Small Institution as ours, we sponsor Little League baseball teams, soccer teams, the county junior fair and many other activities. We realize if we dont support small will call business, they soon wont be here. Those words could have been written by any small Financial Institution in america, mr. Speaker, and they ring so true. In order to keep our small communities alive, we have to keep their Small Businesses alye and must keep their small banks alive. So again, it is so important that we enact h. R. 4771, that we reduce this red tape on our Community Financial institutions, i thank the gentlelady from utah for introducing the legislation, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentlewoman from kale is recognized. Ms. Waters thank you. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker the gentlewoman is recognized. Ms. Waters i rise in opposition to h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act of 2018. This bill is another republicanled measure to roll back appropriately tailored policies to regulate the Financial Services sector that ignores the hardlearned essence of the catastrophic 2008 financial crisis. Weve seen this same flawed approach in h. R. 10, which i call the wrong choice act, last year, and were seeing it again in the senate as it considers advancing senator crapos wall street giveaway, which includes a provision identical to the bill that were considering today, along with several other harmful provisions. The Federal Reserve Small Bank Holding Company policy statement was first issued in 1980 to enable the transfer of ownership of small Community Banks by allowing small, noncomplex Bank Holding Companies to operate with higher levels of debt that would normally than would normally be permit the original policy statement established a threshold of bank holing companies with less than 150 million in assets. But this level was increased to 500 million in 2006. The policy statement allows certain small Bank Holding Companies and savings and loan Holding Companies to hold more debt at the Holding Company level than would otherwise be allowed by Capital Requirements. If the debt is used to finance up to 75 of an acquisition of another bank. Put another way, the policy statement is important because it allows Small Institutions like Community Banks and minorityowned insured depository institutions to access Additional Debt so they can continue serving their communities without compromising bank safety and soundness. Thus it is important that the threshold level be carefully calibrate sod it cannot be abused by speculative investors. If the threshshold raised too high, it will encourage more mergers and acquisitions, riskier banking activities and reduced Banking Services and Credit Availability to rural, lowincome, minority and underserved communities. 2014 democrats worked with republicans to examine this threshold and reached a reasonable compromise to raise the threshold to 1 billion. This change was implemented only after closely consulting with regulators to determine the appropriate threshold level to help Community Banks grow without making them targets. For mergers and acquisitions. The 1 billion threshold is sensible and reasonable and in light of the federal deposit insurance corporations exhaustive study several years ago on the definition of Community Bank. While the fdic factors in other considerations, their definition of a Community Bank includes a dollar threshold of banks with less than 1 billion in assets. According to 2016 data, from the Federal Reserve, 87 of all Bank Holding Companies are covered by the current 1 billion threshold. A large majority of the industry currently benefited from the 014 adjusted increase in the policy statement, including all truly small Community Banks. Furthermore, it is worth highlighting that the bipartisan compromise reached in 2014 included other important safe forwards such as exclude anything Bank Holding Companies and savings and loan Holding Companies with less than 1 billion that are engaged in significant nonbanking activities. It also gives the Federal Reserve the ability to exclude any Bank Holding Companies and savings and loan Holding Companies from the policy statement regardless of size if it concludes that the exclusion is warranted for supervisory purposes. But my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not hesitated to try and push the threshold higher. Last congress, just a little more than a year after a bipartisan compromise to increase the threshold republicans pushed through the house another bill, h. R. 3791, that would have significantly increased the threshold from 1 billion to 5 billion. That bill faced a veto threat from the obama administration, as it should have, and it went nowhere in the senate. Then last year, chairman hensarling included a provision in h. R. 10, the wrong choice act, to drastically raise the 1 billion threshold to 10 billion. And because the senate now appears set to move a bill that raises the threshold but no nowhere near that level, we now find ourselves become on the floor of the house today, considering a new bill to trip they will threshold from 1 billion to 3 billion. While it is slightly less drastic increase than the one in the bill republicans pushed through the house last congress, triple the policy statement threshold to 3 billion so soon since the last threshold increase is still unwise. There simply has not been sufficient time to see what effect doubling the policy statement threshold from 500 million to 1 billion really means for Community Banks. Congress should at least examine the data and understand the effects of the last change before making another one. We should not ignore the concerns raised by experts that this approach will allow small banks to take on more debt than they otherwise need and may actually promote mergers and acquisitions so that we have fewer Community Banks, not more. While republicans bushed bills like h. R. 4741 in the name of helping Community Banks this is yet another proposal that would likely result in fewer, not more, Community Banks. Even the Treasury Department under this president , president trump, only recommended raising the threshold to 2 billion, so they are 1 billion beyond what even the president supports. That was in a report issued last year. So as i mentioned, h. R. 4771 is one of the many harmful provisions in senator crepos financial deregulatory bill that is advanced in the senate. Senator crapos bill includes many other harmful rollbacks that would fundamentally weaken the regulatory framework. For example, it would roll back certain stress testing requirements for banks like wells fargo and enhance standards for many of the largest banks in the country. The senate bill would gut enhanced rules for foreign banks like georgia bank and credit suisse. It would also eliminate a requirement that many banks collect and publicly report critical Home Mortgage disclosure act that is from hmda day tafment hmda data is used for many purposes including to identify mortgage lending discrimination against many latinos, africanamerican, and other minority groups. I could go on and on but the list is longer than the time we have allotted. The bottom line is that i strongly urge my colleagues to reject h. R. 4771 and the other efforts by Congressional Republicans and this administration to deregulate wall street and the Banking Industry and roll back the clock to a time not long ago when we had weak oversight and few safeguards to protect consumers, investors and taxpayers. You can see whats happening. At one point, the opposite side of the aisle said, lets wrump to 5 billion and then, mr. Hensarling said, no, lets jump to 10 billion. This is done without any thought or consideration for what theyre doing and the risk that theyre placing on these little banks to be bought up in the mergers to take place. So you can see that theres no real thought, no real review new york real consideration given when you say lets go from 1 billion to 3 billion to 5 billion, to 10 billion. Were saying no thats wrong. Dont do that, dont do that to these Community Banks. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling im pleased to yield five minutes to the gentlelady from utah, ms. Love, the sponsor of the legislation. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Love thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise in support of h. R. 4771. I want to first thank my chairman, chairman hensarling for his support of this bill as well as the cosponsors, mr. Gottheimer and mr. Meeks, for making this a bipartisan effort to help Community Banks. Economic freedom and personal freedom run hand in hand. In order to ensure personal freedom, americans need access to credit. Individuals need access to credit. On behalf of their families abtheir businesses. That is why i am proud to have introduced this bill. H. R. 4771 is a very simple bill to help small banks, savings and loan companies, get access to the capital they need to make credit available in their community. These small Banking Institutions are critical to people in the local communities in which they reside. The they support the credit needs of families, Small Businesses, farmers and entrepreneurs. Community banks are often the principal lending source for many people, whether theyre purchasing a home, starting a business, in many counties around the nation, our Community Bank is the only banking presence that residents have. Then these Community Banking institutions are overwhelmed with regulations and mandates, many of which are meant for larger institutions, it is hard working families and lowincome americans in those communities that suffer. Mr. Speaker, this is bill is about people. Community banks give people the credit they need to pursue their dreams. To buy a home. To buy a car. To own and grow their business. In fact, proximity to a Community Bank increases the chance that a small banking a Small Business would be approve forward loan that they need to succeed. By raising the consolidated asset threshold under the Federal Reserve Small Bank Holding Company policy statement from 1 billion to 3 billion in assets, hundreds of additional small banks and thrift Holding Companies will fall fi will qualify for the coverage under the policy statement and therefore be exempt from certain regulatory and capital guidelines. These capital standards were originally established for larger institutions and dispr portion gnatly harm small Holding Companies. Many Holding Companies are above the current threshold face challenges with regard to Capital Formation. Just when regulators are demanding higher capital levels. The extensions provided thunder epolicy statement make it easier for a small Holding Company to raise capital and issue get. This is about making sure that regulation fit the size of the institution. Mr. Speaker, a similar effort was passed into law during the 113th congress under suspension by the house and by unanimous consent in the senate. That bill raised the threshold from 500 million, where it has been since 1996, to 1 billion. That legislation also extended the exemption to savings and loan Holding Companies. While were glad we were able to achieve that increase, which roughly helped 500 small banks and thrift Holding Companies, why wouldnt we extend those benefits further . H. R. 4771 would bring even more Small Institutions within the scope of the policy statement. Weve already seen the benefits of the last increase. One Success Story we heard was an instance where 35 Bank Holding Companies pooled their pull their resources together to issue debt under the policy statement. That debt was dunedown streamed to their respective banks where the capital was then used to make loans in the communities they served. It was the great Multiplier Effect that the policy can produce. H. R. 4771 seeks to extend that flexibility and success to a greater number of Small Institutions and communities they serve. Opponents of this increase have alleged changing the regulate threshold would put community and deposit insurance funds at higher risk, but the policy statement contains not one but several safeguards designed to ensure that the small Bank Holding Companies that operate with the higher levels of debt permitted under the policy statement do not present and undo risk to the safety and soundness of the subis i dear banks. Mr. Speaker, to sum it up, this bill is not about supporting banks. Its about supporting families. Its supporting communities and Small Business. Its about making sure that Small Business owners have the access to the credit they need to expand and to thrive. Ive recently heard of a Business Owner in my community that employs about 30 people, most of these people that she employs are women who are tryinging to take care of their families and make a little bit more so they can put some money in their pocket or buy a car. She would like to expand her business mr. Hensarling i yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized for 30 seconds. Mrs. Love thank you, mr. Speaker. She would like to expand her business to employ more people, but she continuously receives red tape and it makes it very difficult for her to be able to provide for her community this is about families sitting around the Kitchen Table imagining the possibility of renovating their home and the entrepreneur dreaming to start a restaurant or being her own boss. Raising the threshold receives strong bipartisan support in the Financial Services committee, and i hope it will receive equal support in this chamber. Thank you, mr. Speaker, and thank you, mr. Chairman, for this bill. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back. The gentleman reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters thank you very much, mr. Speaker. And members, i dont know what the other sides want. They want 5 billion at one point. 10 billion. Now 3 billion. They throws something against the wall and hopes it sticks. We say dont put these Community Banks at risk. I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from michigan, the vice Ranking Member of the Financial Services committee, mr. Kildee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from michigan is recognized as much time as he may consume within the ladys time. Mr. Kildee thank you. I thank Ranking Member waters for yielding. I know she understands the danger of yielding to much as much time i may consume. I will take a couple minutes. I rise in opposition to h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act. There are unaddressed concerns as to the effect this bill will have on Community Banks that serve so many of our constituents. Whether it be through more Bank Consolidation or whether it will encourage small banks to take on more unsustainable debt. The Federal Reserve has a Small Bank Holding Company policy statement that outlines ownership transfer of small Community Banks and Savings Association by, quote, allowing their Holding Companies to operate with higher levels of debt than would normally be permitted, unquote. The Holding Companies that qualify for the policy statement can have up to 1 billion in assets. A limit that was reached in a bipartisan effort in the 113th congress. Yet, even though this new threshold was enacted just at the end of 2014, weve seen multiple efforts to raise the limit even higher. According to data from the Federal Reserve, under the current 1 billion threshold, 87 of all Bank Holding Companies and 72 of savings and loan Holding Companies hold nearly 1 trillion in assets under that 1 billion threshold. Its too soon to know the effects of increasing the threshold to 1 billion. Why are we pushing to raise it even further without sufficient information as to the effect on last ket of the increase . And we may disagree on the conclusion we come to, but a concern i would like to address is while we are raising this question, while we are debating whether to raise this threshold without, i believe, sufficient knowledge as to the full impact of the last increase, were taking time on the floor when we have so many other unaddressed concerns that get no time on this floor. You know, as members of the committee and certainly other members of the house understand, i spend a good deal of my time working on issues related to the conditions of americas cities and towns, a whole subset of american towns. Even in a period of Economic Growth, which we all acknowledge has been sustained now over the period of the last eight years, many communities are continuing to be left behind. Why is that . Im sure there are a lot of reasons. Im sure some of my friends would argue that some of the issues addressed in this legislation might touch on them. But one thing i know for sure, the crumbling roads and bridges and water and sewer systems in ose communities are so serious, the problem is so great, the unaddressed issue of Violent Crime in these same cities which this house continues to leave unaddressed essentially ensures that any change is the regulate structure in the marketplace is are not sufficient to deal with the underlying and really oubling problems these communities face. A year ago the president came to the floor of this house and talked about a trilliondollar infrastructure plan. He came back and said it would be 1. 5 trillion with one little asterisk. Only 200 billion from the federal government. State and local government are supposed to raise the rest of this. I say often the arguments in favor of taking some of the regulate protections off these institutions is that its supposed to unlock the marketplace to rebuild these communities when these communities are so shackled to the bottom of the ocean that no rising tide will raise them. We dont get control of the incredible struggle and deterioration in these older cities, nothing we do on this floor otherwise is going to make it right for those folks. I represent one of those towns. Youve heard me talk about my hometown of flint. There are so many other communities that are struggling. The jurisdiction of our committee does include addressing the condition of urban america. I would just hope and really ask we spend a bit more time on those questions. I would feel much more comfortable having a debate about what the regulate structure looks like if i felt like there was sufficient attention being given to those issues. In the meantime, because of the questions that ive already raised about the impact of this legislation not being fully understood, even the last increase in the threshold not being fully understood, im going to urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentlewoman from california reserves. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i yield myself 10 seconds to say as the Ranking Member appears to be vexed where the 3 billion came from, its the product of bipartisan compromise, something i invite her to engage in more often, and this particular bill is supported by almost half the democrats on the committee. Im now pleased to yield three minutes to the gentleman from missouri, mr. Luetkemeyer, the chairman of the Financial Institutions subcommittee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from missouri is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Luetkemeyer thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you, chairman hensarling. Id say the current regulate climate presents challenges to Financial Institutions would be drastic understatement. Today they require more and the community gentleman from utah seeks to relieve some of these pressures. They confront unique challenges with regard to Capital Formation which is a particular concern at time when regulators demand more and more capital. Understanding these challenges, the fed has recognized that small banks have limited access to equity financing. The Federal Reserve small bank holding policy statement gives relief from certain capital guidelines and requirements, making it easier for a Community Bank to raise capital and issue debt and to make acquisitions and form new bank and thrift Holding Companies. Id like to digress for a second here. I think its very important, mr. Speaker that we talk about the area the time frame prior to 2008 whenever we were averaging about 150 to 170 new banks and Credit Unions every year. Between the time frame of 2010 and 2016 we averaged one. Thats significant because Small Businesses get their loans from small banks, and without this access to capital for Small Businesses, we will dry up our Small Businesses in this country that are the job creators. So by increasing the threshold, the feds policy statement from 1 billion to 3 billion, we have the opportunity to help more banks operating in our community and hopefully be formed in our communities and help our lending to our constituents. Similar legislation has been contemplated in the house on a number of occasions. The language in this latest iteration is identical to the bipartisan language proposed in the Senate Banking Committee Bill and is similar to legislation that passed the house in the 114th congress and included in my clear act. H. R. 4771 will go a long way in ensuring our nations smallest institutions are able to grow stronger and continue to serve their constituents. I want to thank ms. Love for her leadership on mrs. Love for her leadership on this legislation and chairman hensarling and, mr. Speaker, i ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense bill. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters it is now my pleasure to yield three minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. Green. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Green thank you, madam Ranking Member. I am so honored to have this opportunity. I thank the chairman as well, and i want to thank the Ranking Member for all of the work that shes done in this area. She has been a part of the avantgarde to protect and maintain Community Banks. One of the great difficulties that weve had with our committee is defining what a Community Bank is. Weve had testimony to indicate that a Community Bank can be 50 billion or more. We want to make sure that the Small Institutions that the chairperson is talking about continue to exist. It is unfortunate but if we pass this legislation, there is a good likelihood that the level of consolidation that will take place will be antitheycal to the very commentary were antithetical to the very commentary were hearing. Theres a contradiction contained within the very effort thats been made. Im honored to have with me a statement from over 200 civil rights, community organizations, labor unions, businesses, investors, faithbased businesses, community and civic groups, and this Statement Reads this is from them but i concur with it. Raising the limit to 3 billion is a policy well calculated to significantly reduce the number of Community Banks in the United States. First, raising the limit will allow mediumsized Community Banks of 2 billion to 3 billion in size to more easily acquire smaller Community Banks. Thats a significant comment because the acquisition of Smaller Banks is going to cause us to have fewer Smaller Banks and the argument thats being made is that the Smaller Banks are the ones that are servicing Small Businesses. It goes on to read reducing the number of independent Community Banks, second, allowing Holding Companies to borrow excessively will raise the risk of bank failure to the next failure the next time the Financial Services system is under stress. A 3 billion limit is unjustified as there is no evidence that Community Banks over 1 billion in size are currently too small to survive. According to a recent fdic report, while economies of scale are important for Community Banks, historical trends in the size, distribution of Community Banks that have survived over the last quarter of a century do not suggest that economies of scale require a Community Bank to grow or merge to asset sizes larger than 1 billion. My point is, i am a proponent of Community Banks. May i have an additional 30 seconds, madam Ranking Member . Ms. Waters please, i yield to the gentleman an additional minute. Mr. Green the point is, i am a proponent of having small banks. I call small banks Community Banks. Im a proponent of this, and if im a proponent of it, then i support the notion that we cannot allow them to be consolidated such that we will have fewer of them. I think this legislation is a little bit misguided in that it contradicts the very premise upon which it rests. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman from california reserves. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling i yield myself 10 seconds to say, they want to support Community Banks and they supported doddfranks. The reason the banks are being gobbled up, and the point of the legislation is to allow them to come together and protect themselves and not be gobbled up by the big banks they vilify in the first place. I yield three minutes to mr. Huizenga. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Huizenga weve been hearing some detail os they have bill, but heres the real message. This is about our small communities and small banks that are the life blood of those communities. A little earlier you heard the Ranking Member talking about this being about wall street. You know what . Shes right. This is about wall street. Wall street was one block away from where i lived on sanford street in zeeland, michigan. We were connected by main street and central avenue. That is who it is about. Whether its wall street in zeeland, michigan, or sanford street, or my friends in baldwin, michigan, this is about our small communities. So what does a strong local Community Bank bring . It brings local investment. What does that local investment bring . Stability. Predictability. Trust. Trust among the farmers. Among those corner pub owners. Among those Small Hotel Owners that may be depending on the stray traveler thats going to be coming through. You know, this has been sort of viewed as a risk to these small banks. Its actually the opposite of that. Because either, a, one small Community Bank is going to merge with another small Community Bank and they are going to remain small Community Banks under that 3 billion threshold. Or b, what we have been seing a lot of, and this is what the chairman was talking about, or, b, theyre going to get gobbled up by a large bank that doesnt qualify under this legislation and guess what . Theyre far more likely to remove those a. T. M. s, far more like toy hi to move those local branches out of places like tustin and luther and baldwin and hollande. So i can tell you this, if you went and said that this is about anything other than strengthening our small Community Banks, it either shows one is wildly out of touch or b, playing politics. Thats the sad part. I can tell you this. You talk to my friend, debbie smitholson, the c. E. O. Of state bank in baldwin, michigan. Located in the poorest county in the state of michigan. One of the top 100 poorest counties in the nation. And you told her this was about wall street, shed laugh. You went and talked to my friends at another bank and said this is about helping big banks and wall street and rolling back doddfrank they would first look at me in stunned silence and me, are you ld ask serious . Unfortunately thats the kind of rhetoric that youre hearing out here today. Lets make sure that we understand what this is really about. Strengthening our small bank which strengthen our small communities an strengthen our Small Business owners that is what is going to continue this economic comeback that we are experiencing here in the United States. So i commend the gentlelady from utah and her work on a bipartisan manner and the basis that this has been coming together with people of good will, trying to come up with a solution to make sure that we dont see needless consolidation in a Banking Community thats already been so hit. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for an additional 30 seconds. Mr. High sebga this is about making sure we have a sol mr. Huizenga this is about making sure we have a solid Community Banking system. We know they have been under assault under the doddfrank provisions that have come through, that i dont think were maliciously put in but they were misunderstood about what those effects would be. The gentlelady from utah, ms. Love is rectifying that. I want to encourage my colleagues to support that and vote yes for this bill. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters thank you very much. I think it is important for us to understand the support that Community Banks have gotten from this side of the aisle. I know that my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle oftentimes advance the argument that theyre the only ones who care about Community Banks. And that we dont understand Community Banks. And oftentimes they have arguments that basically would have one conclude that we dont really advance the cause of Community Banks. Id just like to remind my colleagues in this congress of the work that we have done in support of Community Banks. We have supported and successfully supported less frequent exams from wellrated Community Banks with less than 1 billion. The exam cycle is now 18 months instead of 1 months for these strong, small banks. We took into consideration the concerns of Community Banks about the examiners coming too often, disturbing the banks oftentimes, tying up the personnel in the bank and so we agreed. Lets not have them come in every 12 months. Lets extend that so that 18 months will give some relief to the Community Banks so that they dont have to deal with the a way that such disturbing the bank. We also moved successfully to eliminate annual Privacy Notice for Community Banks and Credit Unions whose policies have not changed and the consumer is already notified. Well, so we did that. We eliminated these annual Privacy Notices for the Community Banks and for Credit Unions. Who have not change thared policies an there was no need to have to continue to insist that they have these annual Privacy Notices. Well, we went further with less stringent s. E. C. Registration rules for small thrifts, providing parity with other banks. Access to credit for privately insured credit union, allowing them to join the Federal Home Loan Bank program. Improve mortgage licensing for Community Banks and Credit Unions by allowing regulatory regulator access to the nationwide mortgage licensing system and registry while maintaining confidentiality protections. I just cite this because its so important to understand what we have done on this side of the aisle to ensure that our Community Banks are strong, that they are there for our communities, that they provide the loans, that they assist in developing our communities. What we dont understand oftentimes is why our friends on the opposite side of the aisle in the name of Community Banks will come with proposals that hurt Community Banks. We have pointed out that our friends on the opposite side of the aisle have gone so far as to try and get everyone to believe that we should increase this amount of debt that they can carry to up to 10 billion. Thats totally irresponsible. Totally. And even when they attempted to go to 5 billion. Totally irresponsible. Down to 3 billion because i guess they said, well, we got to try to get some more opportunities for small banks to carry this debt. Well, they dont answer the question about what happens when the small Community Banks are burdened with debt that they cannot take care of. That they cannot pay. They dont talk about the fact that thats going to cause the Community Bank to close. And they certainly dont talk about putting them in the position where they will be brought up. So i would simply say, for those of us who have proven our support for Community Banks, and who continue to engage with Community Banks about what we can do to ensure their strength, to ensure that theyre there to provide the loans in the neighborhood and in the communities that they serve. And so i think we have identified ourselves, we have defined ourselves and we would simply ask those who are listening to this debate to continue to know and understand what is happening between these different sides of the aisle. And to look at what we have done and to understand how weve been helpful in our support for Community Banks. With that, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling i yield myself 10 seconds to use a term popularized on the other side of the aisle, these are crumbs, deregulatory crumbs, offered by the Ranking Member, when in fact she and others on the other side of the aisle have their hand prints all over doddfrank, which 90 of Community Bankers will tell you is the number one reason they are going out of business. Which is why we have to enact this bill. Mr. Speaker, im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Rothfus, vice chairman of our Financial Institution subcommittee. Mr. Rothfus i thank the chairman for yielding and i thank the speaker. I rise today to express my support for h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act. I also want to thank my colleague from utah, representative love, for her hard work on this important issue. We have extensively discussed the challenges that small banks face in the current regulatory environment, both on the house floor and in the Financial Services committee, including just yesterday with the debate on the Mortgage Choice act. These challenges contribute to the continued retreat of Community Banks from small towns and underserved communities across our country. Including those that my district in the hills and valleys of western pennsylvania. This hurts families an main street businesses by depriving them of the access to Financial Services that they desperately need. The Small Bank Holding Company relief act will allow more institutions to operate under the Small Bank Holding Company policy statement, which will help them raise Additional Capital by issuing debt. It will also make it easier for covered institutions to form new Holding Companies, fund existing Holding Companies, and make acquisitions. Altogether, this is a smart targeted bill that will help more small Financial Institutions grow and adjust to the changing economic and regulatory landscape. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters thank you very much. Id like to remind my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle that the Community Banks with 1 billion to 5 billion in assets already have sufficient access to Capital Markets and as a group are exhibiting health and resilience. Raising the threshold to exempt banks with over 1 billion from important minimum leverage and Capital Requirements would do little more than encourage banks to take on debt, as ive reminded you time and time again today, endangering their soundness and potentially depriving their customers of muchneeded Banking Services, should the bank fail. Setting the consolidated assets threshold at 1 billion was a bipartisan decision that struck a balance between allowing small banks to access capital, to better serve their customers, d ensuring thashe safety and raising the threshold would be an unnecessary and risky change. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman reserves. The gentleman from texas is recognize. Mr. Hensarling im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from florida, mr. Ross, vice chairman of the housing and insurance subcommittee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Ross thank you, mr. Speaker, mr. Chairman. And i thank ms. Love for this bill. It is said that all politics are local but might i also suggest that all Economic Growth is local as well . Local in the sense of Small Businesses, Small Businesses, the mom and pops who put their ideas at risk in order to create their American Dream of growing a business and creating jobs and yet what does it take . It takes access to capital and yet since doddfrank we have not seen that access to capital available to our Small Businesses who so desperately need it in order to grow our economies, especially at the community level. In fact, might i even suggest that doddfrank has only one attribute in terms of job growth and thats the creation of the one Fastest Growing job out there, compliance officer. Compliance officers that banks and Financial Institutions have to hire in order to meet regulatory burdens that takes away from the bottom line of consumers. Consumers who want to achieve the American Dream. Mr. Speaker, h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act, will allow that access to capital that is so desperately needed at the local level. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill and with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters we heard it again. We hate doddfrank, we hate doddfrank, we hate the Consumer Financial protection bow row. We dont believe doddfank should have created the reforms they did. Just forget about the fact that there was a subprime meltdown in 2008. That this country went into a recession almost a depression. Throw all of that out the window. Forget about what was happening when the big banks failed and we bailed them all out. Forget about reforms, oh, how much we hate doddfrank. We just blame doddfrank for everything. Please. I think that as credible legislators were beyond the point of wrapping up everything that we dont like and accusing doddfrank reforms for causing problems to everything and everybody including the Community Banks. The fact of the matter is if we went to strengthen, preserve, and make sure Community Banks are available to our communities, we wont take on Public Policy that would put them at risk, with having more debt than they can take care of. And we wont put them at risk of being bought up and these merges taking place. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman reserves her time. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i yield myself 10 seconds just to request of the Ranking Member on her time if she will begin to name the Community Banks that were responsible for the 2008 financial crisis os itsably that was supposed to be answer the by doddfrank. Shell have time to think about that. Im now pleased to yield one minute to the gentleman from new york, mr. Zeldin. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new york is recognized for one minute. Mr. Zeldin thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of h. R. 4771. The Small Bank Holding Company relief act. I commend my friend from utah, love, for her amazing leadership on this important issue and her tireless effort to bring relief to the Community Banks that lend to Small Businesses and families in my district and love, for her in ts america. By reforming the one size fits all regulations mandated by the doddfrank law, that wrote small Community Financial institutions in with large global too big to fail megafirms, this commonsense bill will give Community Banks and customers they serve more clarity and allow them to focus on their Important Mission of lending to home own earns businesses. This legislation makes it easier for small and medium sized institutions subject to doddfrank mandates to form new Holding Companies, fund existing Holding Companies, and make acquisitions by issuing debt at the Holding Company level. Now that they are subject to the basil 3 Capital Requirements, many Community Banks have found it difficult to access and raise capital. The consequence on this and chokehold on Community Lending the speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for additional 30 seconds. Mr. Zeldin this means less mortgage, less Small Business loans, and less Economic Growth. Fixing this and facilitates the ability of Community Banks and savings institutions to raise needed capital. I urge adoption of this bill. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore fixing gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Waters i have no further requests for time. And im prepared to close. I yield myself the remainder of my time. Mr. Speaker, democrats support targeted measured relief for our Community Financial institutions. We recognize that these Smaller Banks and Credit Unions intimately know their communities and how best to serve them, but we also know that changes to the rules that are designed to ensure that Community Banks are safe and sound can have unintended consequences. While Community Banks did not cause the 2008 financial crisis, they were at the isnter of another crisis just at the center of another crisis just two decades before. When i came to the Financial Services committee, thousands of savings and loans Holding Companies were failing and causing serious harm to the communities they were supposed to serve. This was due in part to the fact that lawmakers thought it was wise to weaken safeguards on these savings and loan Holding Companies allowing them to take on more leverage and offer riskier products. I fear that congress will again pass legislation today that will ultimately cause harm to both the very Community Banks we want to help and the hardworking americans that rely on them. And now republicans are trying to raise the threshold as high as possible. In the chairmans wrong choice act, he would raise the threshold tenfold to 10 billion. At the end of last congress, republicans sought to raise it to 5 billion a few months ago the Trump Administration recommended raising it to 2 billion. And now a little less than three years after we reached a bipartisan compromise, were inexplicably considering legislation to raise it to 3 billion. I tried to tell you just a few moments ago, they dont know. They are just throwing up against the wall whatever we can get. Next thing theyll ask for 20 billion. No, you moved away from 10 billion. You moved away from 5 billion. Now you are at 3 billion. The president wants 2 billion. We say leave it as it is. Mr. Speaker, if youre listening and feeling dizzy, its understandable. None of these levels are backed by the same Consideration Congress gave to the threshold two years ago. Its the kind of legislating that set the groundwork for the savings and loan crisis. And left thousands of communities without access to banking service. When i came on, members of congress were fleeing the old banking committee. They wanted to get out of there because they had responsible for Public Policy that had put the s l business at risk and now that it was all failing, they were fleeing it and they were punishing people, all the new members, coming on and making them go on this committee because they knew that they had nobody else to serve on it. I have been there. I have seen it. I have experienced it. Im a part of doddfrank reforms. I served on the conference committee. I worked with dodd. I worked with frank. I know what we should be doing. Before i close, id like to remind my colleagues that this bill and many of the other one of Financial Services bill republicans are pushing should be viewed as setting the table for the dangerous deregulatory package making it through the senate. That package which our committee has not even considered to thoroughly understand the interactions of all the rollbacks it contains, weakens oversight of wall street, and the nations largest banks, under the guise of Community Bank relief. H. R. 4741 is one of the many provisions in the senate bill that when taken together will risk further bailouts and harm homeownership in america. Every time this house passes another provision we make it more likely that critical safeguards and protections will be eviscerated at the expense of our nations homeowners and consumers. I urge all members to soundly reject 4771 today and to reject the Largest Senate legislation if it comes to the house. I comfortably say despite the fact that my friends on the opposite side of the aisle are trying to frame this in a certain way, they really dont know what they are doing. Reject this bill. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman time has expired. The chair will receive a message. The messenger mr. Speaker, a message from the senate. The speaker pro tempore madam secretary. The secretary mr. Speaker, i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has passed with an amendment to h. R. 582, this act may be cited as the law act of 2017. The speaker pro tempore the chair will recognizes the gentleman from texas. Mr. Hensarling im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio, mr. Davidson, a hardworking member of the Financial Services committee. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from ohio is recognized. Mr. Davidson mr. Speaker, i rise today to offer my support for h. R. 4771, the Small Bank Holding Company relief act. This bill is another example of the rollback of burdensome regulations of the doddfrank act. Which barney frank himself says missed the mark, particularly with respect to small banks. I appreciate the member opposed calling attention to democrats who have worked across the aisle to benefit Community Banks. In fact, 11 of them support this bill in our committee. I appreciate them for doing that. I appreciate the cosponsors who are democrats who worked across the aisle with my colleague, mrs. Love, to pass this good bill through our committee. I look forward to seeing more colleagues pass this in a bipartisan way across the floor of the house today. How about giving Small Institutions a chance to start taking back some of their market share. Instead of too big to fail, what doddfrank has done is made things so small banks are too small to succeed. These exemptions that are in easier for e it small bank holing company to Holding Companies to raise capital, issue debt. Under the current requirements Small Businesses cant compete with the larger banks. And the large banks have celebrated this in their own statements celebrating the effect of doddfrank and protecting their market share and helping them grow it. Under current Capital Requirements, that what thats what we have seen. Bigger banks getting bigger and Smaller Banks getting fewer. We need to give Smaller Banks ability to breathe from the burden thats been shoved double play their throats. We have demonstrated thats the competitive advantage. Frankly all benchmarks are easier to audit, just picking a number here in d. C. , is easier to audit. And this is a compromise to what would be a good solution to look at systemic risk. Were losing nearly one Community Bank the speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for an additional 30 seconds. Mr. Davidson were losing nearly one Community Bank a day and thats having a devastating impact on local businesses and communities. I urge all of our colleagues to support h. R. 4771, and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, may i inquire how much time is remaining . The speaker pro tempore the gentleman has 4 1 4 minutes remaining. The speaker pro tempore i yield myself the balance of the time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, our Community Financial institutions play a vital role in our local communities, particularly in rural areas like the Fifth District of texas, our east texas counties. Yet they are being crushed, crushed by the shear weight, volume, complexity and expense of regulation brought about by doddfrank. I hear so much from the Ranking Member about how much her side of the aisle cares about Community Banks, but their words are belied by their actions in supporting doddfrank, supposedly meant for wall street, but it is hurting main street. We have a bill before us today, mr. Speaker, h. R. 4771, that will give a little bit of ability for Community Banks to protect themselves from the onslaught of this regulatory burden. And the whole idea again, mr. Speaker, is to ensure that Community Banks can at least gather and merge amongst themselves so they are not gobbled up by the big banks that are vilified by the other side of the aisle in the first place. Again, mr. Speaker, this is actually, you wouldnt know it from the Ranking Member, a bipartisan proposal. Supported by almost half, half of the democrats on the Financial Services committee. Again, there is great bipartisan work on our committee. Almost 3 sl 3 4 of our bills are bipartisan. Few are supported by our Ranking Member. Lets do one small thing today. Lets have the house do one small thing today, mr. Speaker, that will help them survive a day more. So that they can lend money to a hardworking family to buy that first home. So that they can lend money to somebody to realize their American Dream of perhaps starting their own Small Business after having to get that paycheck at the local factory for so many years, now they can finally go out and start their own Small Business. Maybe its a matter of sending the first kid to college. But all of this, all of this disappears, these hopes and dreams disappear with our Community Banks who are still failing, unfortunately, at the rate of one approximately every other day. This is unacceptable. This is totally unacceptable. And so we have one deregulatory measure here. One to help our Community Banks survive. We hear from so many of them, mr. Speaker. Heres one from indiana that says regulations have significantly reduced our ability to make judgment calls on credit decisions. When i first came to First Savings Bank i had a number of people tell me that the first gave them their first loan. Probably when they didnt deserve it. Today they are business and civic leaders. I guess we made the right call then. However gave them their first loan. Probably when they today we can that call. Washington has made that call. He answer is no. One reason, one voice of one banker telling us why we need the bill from the gentlelady from utah. Heres another from one reason, one voice of a bank texas who said, quote, when i started banking, the Community Bank Business Model was built around bankers helping their communities to thrive. Today customers are confused when they have to sign so many papers to open a deposit account or borrow money. I can only think of one explanation and that is our government thinks our customers are too stupid to come into the bank and negotiate a private transaction with their banker. The Community Banker that they go to church with. The Community Banker whose kids go to school with the customers kids. And the Community Banker whose wife is in the local charity and the wives of the bankers customers customers wives. Another from nevada. I have been a banker for over 30 years. Good bankers are fleeing the industry. The days of making a commonsense decision for the benefit of the customer are gone. For me retirement cant come soon enough. Ive got binders and binders full of these testimonies, mr. Speaker. And as the local Community Banks leave, so leave the Credit Opportunities of so many low and moderate income americans. Its got to stop. It is time for the house to enact h. R. 4771. Lets stop the carnage. Lets encourage Community Bank living. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore all time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 725, the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended. The question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it, third reading. He clerk a bill to raise the the clerk a bill to extend the threshold for lending and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Mr. Hensarling on that, i request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this uestion will be postponed. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further pr seedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or votes objected to under clause 6 of rule 20678 the house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. For what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass the bill s. 96. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk senate 96, an act to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure the integrity of Voice Communications and to prevent unjust or unreasonable discrimination among the areas of the United States in the delivery of such communications. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Lance, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Doyle, each will control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the record on the bill. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Lance mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. Im pleased we are considering s. 96 to improve rural call completion. It will require the federal Communications Commission to establish call completion standards for intermediary providers that sometimes have not routed calls properly in rural areas of our country. By focusing on these standards, we will ensure that the high quality Telephone Service people in big cities may take for granted will be shared by those americans living in harder to reach areas. I appreciate the bipartisan work of congressman david young and congressman peter welch. Their companien companion bill, h. R. 460, passed the house on january 23, 2017. I also thank senator klobuchar and senator thune for their work on rural call completion. Without the bipartisan and bicameral work of all of these members, we would not be here today. Thank you, mr. Speaker, and i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. This is a bipartisan bill championed by representative david young and cospon boar cosponsored by others including representatives welch and loebsack. Mr. Doyle we deal with a lot of issues but this bill aims to address the most essential function of our telephone system, making sure that all americans calls go through. Many people take for granted our modern communication tools. But in Rural America, even the basic function of connecting a call is sometimes next to impossible. Consumers tell us often when they call rural areas they are met with false busy signals or calls not even arriving, just silence. This isnt just an important problem for Rural Americans but also for people in all of our districts who want to reach loved ones across the country and cant. This status quo is unacceptable. We need reliable Telephone Service to keep us connected. Its too important for everyday life, particularly in the wake of the terrible natural disasters that swept through our country earlier this year. Its clearer than ever that basic phone service is critical when responding to emergencies and critical from everything from finding a job to managing their health. We know problems with call completion are often related to intermediate providers, the middlemen, hired to route calls. This bill requires intermediate providers to register with the f. C. C. And comply with Service Quality standards. These commonsense steps should make it easier to figure out when providers are cutting corners or not doing their jobs. Ultimately, the bill puts consumers first by helping to make sure we can stay connected to one another. S. 96 is a bipartisan bill that passed on suspension earlier this congress and last congress and i urge my colleagues to support it today. Mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from muge is recognized. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker, i yield two minutes to the distinguished chair of the telecommunications subcommittee, mrs. Blackburn. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, plmp. I thank the vice chairman, mr. Lance, for the work hes done on this issue and the Ranking Member, mr. Doyle, for his work on this. As mr. Doyle mentioned, many of complex and re they are things we do approach on a bipartisan basis. In the bill we have before us, on rural call completion, is something that mr. Young and mr. Welch have put time and effort into. They fully understand that while so many of us will work here in an area where a call going through is something that you just take for granted, that it is going to happen, that in many parts of our district, like my district in tennessee, with rural counties, many times you will have those dropped calls. Or degrade calls or either you cannot get the call to go through at all. In times of emergency, and in times of trauma for families when theyre trying desperately to get in touch with elderly parents or with Home Health Care providers and to get that constant busy signal just adds to that stress of life and that concern for the well being of those that are on the other end of that phone. So i commend mr. Welch and mr. Young for the job that they have done to push forward with this legislation. As was mentioned earlier, we have previously passed this in the house and we are pleased that the senate has moved forward, has taken this up, and we are seeking to finish this up and move it to the president s desk. So i thank my colleagues, i encourage everyone to support this legislation, and mr. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle mr. Speaker, i continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from iowa, mr. Young, who has work sod hard on this issue. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Young thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today in strong support of the improving rural call quality and reliability act. This is a bill that i introduced in a bipartisan sfags with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the 114th congress and we passed it in 2016. Again here in the 2015 in the 115th congress, we passed it again, didnt quite get it to the finish line. But here we are. I want to thank mr. Welch of vermont for joining me in introducing this legislation. Its muchneeded. I want to thank senator klobuchar and senator thune for finally getting the senate to act on this important legislation. This is the senate bill. To me it doesnt matter whose name or what number is on this bill. Its about good calls getting through good policy getting through to the finish line. Telephone Companies Often rely on intermediate providers to keck calls from Larger Networks to local Service Providers and all too often, especially in rural areas, those calls are poor quality, looped, dropped or even not connected or disconnected. This failure hurt ours family, Small Businesses, farms, consumers in Rural America who are in need of emergency assistance, public services, or are simply trying to do business. Families and businesses in Rural America should have the same communication action sess as those living in urban areas. Improving rural call completion rates and quality are important to ensuring the strength of small towns and granting americans the choice to live and thrive in whatever community is best for them and their family. Rural, urban, or wherever. Our bill will help address this problem by requiring providers to register with the f. C. C. , the federal Communications Commission, in order to meet quality standards and ensurery liable phone service in rural areas. It also prohibits providers from using intermediary routing services not registered with f. C. C. After years hard work in congress and stake holders spread throughout iowa, across the heartland, across the country, im happy to see this meaningful legislation finally moving again and urge my colleagues to support this bill and i want to thank the energy and Commerce Committee chairman walden, Ranking Member pallone, and the subcommittee chair Ranking Members, mrs. Blackburn and mr. Doyle, for their help and leadership on this issue. Thank you very much and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle could i quine inquire if my friend has more speakers . Mr. Lance i believe we have one more speaker. Mr. Doyle i continue stroverb. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from south dakota, mrs. Noem. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized. Mrs. Noem i rise to support the rural call quality and reliability act. Most americans can rely on their phone service to keep in touch with loved ones, they can respond to urgent work then away from their place of business and respond to emergencies. But many of my constituents in south dakota continue to have critical calls cropped with abslutly no warning. More specifically, companies in calls iness of routing drop calls for convenience. This leaves families in unnecessarily dangerous situation. The provisions in the bill are simple. We direct the f. C. C. To establish basic quality standards for providers that transmit voice calls. This will help ensure businesses, families and Emergency Responders can count on phone calls being completed. Mr. Speaker, i love living in a small town in america. Its where i grew up and its where ive chosen to raise my family. Dependable phone service shouldnt be a question for those who make a choice to live in wide open spaces, especially when were making new, amazing, technological advances on a daily basisism urge my colleagues to pass this legislation and ensure those in south dakota and rural areas across the country can rely on their phone calls going through. With that, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle with that, mr. Speaker, this is a good piece of legislation and i hope all members will vote for it when it comes to the floor. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the yield gealeds the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance the house should pass this legislation unanimously. We are one country, urban, suburban, and rural. This will help Rural America and mr. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate 96 . Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, 2 3 mr. Lance i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Mr. Lance mr. Speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and concur in the Senate Amendment to h. R. 582. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title. The clerk h. R. 582, an act to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multiline telephone systems to have a configuration that permits users to directly initiate a call to 911 without dialing any additional digit, code, prefix, or post fix. And for other purposes. Senate amendment. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Lance, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Doyle, each minutes. Rol 20 the chair minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and insert remarks extraneous materials in the record on the bill. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. H. R. 582, or karis law, sponsored by my good friend congressman gohmert. Passed rtant bill congress on is january 23, 2017, and im pleased at this time it will be sent to the president to be signed into law. The residents of texas know of a very painful story. Kari hunt was murdered in a con january 23, 2017, and im pleased at this time it will be sent to the president to be signed into law. Hotel room by her estranged husband in 2013. Her 9yearold daughter did the exact right thing she knew to do which is to call 911. Unfortunately, she did not know to dial another digit to get an outside line and parenthetically i would not have known that. This legislation will ensure when you stay at a hotel you can dial 911 and the call will go through without dialing another number. Karis dad, hank, and mr. Gohmert, have been relentless advocates to make sure this legislation becomes law. I commend their efforts and that f klobuchar and her staff. God bless karis family for not giving up and fighting for this law. It is impossible to express ow important it is. Especially as we approach the 50th anniversary of 911 service next week. Thank you, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Doyle thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise in support of the Senate Amendment to h. R. 582, a bill that passed the house last congress by a voice vote. I agree we must do all we can to make sure that consumers using multiline telephone systems can directly dial 911 without having to dial additional digits first. These are the large gents prize phone systems that we large enterprise phone systems we use in big Office Buildings and hotels. Many require consumers to dial an extra nine to get an outside line. Most of us know that. But too many people do not realize that you also have to dial 9 before dialing 911 on these phones. And if you dont dial the 9 first, you cant reach Emergency Services. As you can imagine in desperate situations, being able to quickly reach First Responders can mean the difference between life and death. And this very issue led to a tragedy in texas several years ago. Kari dunn was killed while her 9yearold daughter tried to call for help. She did what she thought she was supposed to do in an emergency, dial 911. Because the system she was using required her to dial that additional 9 first, she only heard silence on the other end. Building on the herculean effort of her family, we are one step closetory fixing this problem once and to closer to fixing this problem once and for all. H. R. 582 is an important step towards making our systems work better in an emergency. For all the good this bill does, it still leaves work to be done. Specifically these multiline systems still often fail to deliver accurate Location Information to First Responders. That means if someone calls 911 from this very building were sitting in, for instance, precious minutes would tick by as Emergency Personnel struggle to figure out where the call came from in this enormous complex. That delay could be the difference between life and death. We must act to correct this problem, too, because making sure the call goes through is only helpful if Public Safety officials can find the caller. Democrats try to include such a provision in the version of this and at m last congress, that time we received a commitment from chairman walden to Work Together on a separate bill to address this concern. We were not able to solve this problem last congress, and we expect the commitment will carry over to this congress. With that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield two minutes to mrs. Blackburn of tennessee. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady from tennessee has two minutes. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. Chairman. Again, i thank the vice chairman and the Ranking Member for their persistence on this issue. I also commend mr. Gohmert who has worked with karis dad and has seen this through. Were pleased to get this on its way to the president s desk. Indeed, were going to consider continue to work on the enhanced 911 requirements because we do think that that is important. And Technology Allows more precise indications of exactly her exactly, precisely where phone calls are coming from. But solving this problem is one we need to do today. All of us who were moms and dads and have children and grandchildren, you train them to dial 911. And im certain that thats what kari did with her daughter. If there is ever an emergency dial 911. And the fact that this required he preceding digit, an extra number, to be dialed in order to access that outside line that would have delivered that 911 call. Of we look at 50 years 911 service, and karis 36th birthday, which is coming up tomorrow, it is so appropriate that we take this action. I thank mr. Gohmert, i thank the members of the committee who have continued the diligence on this, and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back. The gentleman from new jersey the new jersey. The gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle it gives me great pleasure to yield for as much time as she may consume, the gentlewoman from california, a valuable, valuable member of our energy and Commerce Committee, ms. Eshoo. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Eshoo thank you, mr. Speaker. I thank our terrific Ranking Member for yielding time to me and for his leadership and that of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Karis law address as very serious problem and it has been outlined by members on both sides of the aisle and i support the bill. But its very important for those that are listening in to this discussion this morning that when anyone dials 911 from a hotel, large building, several stories, Office Buildings, our Office Buildings, where our offices are, 10 floors, 20 floors, 30 floors, seconds really matter. They can make the difference between life or death. You should not have to dial 9 or some other prefix to get help. And we already know that thats what happened in this tragic situation where the 9yearold daughter was witnessing the actual murder taking place by her father, the estranged husband of kari, and that woman lost her life. So whats missing in this legislation is accuracy for multiline telephone systems. Once your call reaches the 911 call center, whomever answer that is call needs to know exactly where you are to dispatch First Responders. Now, if youre in a Single Family home, its easy. But if youre in any one of these buildings, hotels, Office Buildings the First Responders have to go floor by floor. That takes a long time. We know, we have walked from floor to floor just to get over to the capitol. Takes less than eight minutes to get from Cannon House Office building to the capitol. So if you call 911 again from the 10th floor of a 30 story office building, it takes First Responders a long time to get there. And oftentimes during an emergency, individuals that have called in, they dont really know exactly where they are. Or they are so panicked that they are blinded by whats going on that they cant express that to the dispatcher. And thats why Location Technology is really important. I offered an amendment when this bill was taken up at the energy and Commerce Committee to include Location Technology. That was rejected by the majority, but they promised that they would work with me in order to bring that about. Despite a lot of reaching out, etc. , etc. , it didnt happen. I am once again offering that ation to establish there will be Location Technology applied to fult line telephone systems. To multiline telephone systems. I think its essential. I dont know anyone that would disagree with that. It just didnt happen and its not in this bill, but i think that its important to highlight that as we celebrate the work thats been done, the important step that this takes, there is a hole in it. So as has been said by other members, were approaching the 50th anniversary next week of the first 911 call ever made in our country. And id like to urge my colleagues to work with me to build on the important progress that this bill represents, karis law, to ensure that all multiline telephone systems provide a callers location when they dial 911. So that the full breedth and depth of an breadth and depth of an emergency system reaches them. So i thank our Ranking Member for yielding all this time to me. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from california yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield three minutes to the principal sponsor, mr. Gohmert of texas. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is given three minutes. Mr. Gohmert thank you, mr. Speaker. I certainly thank my new friend, mr. Leonard lance from new jersey, for his great help in mashing mashling this bill and appreciate the bipartisan support. Marshaling this bill and ppreciate the bipartisan support. I understand there is another element of location. There is some disagreement. I see the merit. I understand some have concerns. But what we found out just to go back. The people have talked about how kari hunt was viciously attacked y her estranged husband. Little 9yearold daughter calling 911. The way that was learned was by the way, she was not only stabbed 21 times, she was repeatedly struck. This was an attack that went on over several minutes. Her brutal, meanspirited estranged husband now says from prison, well, i dont think it would have mattered if 911 call went through. He was attacking her for several minutes. The police could get there in a couple minutes. It would have made all the difference. But the way it was learned was that hank had his little 9 yearold grand taughter in his lap. After kari was pronounced dead. And was trying to console her. Herwas weeping and said, to grandfather, i dont know what happened. I kept dialing 911. And nothing ever happened. Id hang up and dial 911 and nothing happened. Thats when hank began to look into it, found out the situation , and then after he brought it to my attention, we got to look into it, and the hotel associations, other groups, they have been very helpful, but it turns out that its not an expense. All it takes is the government directing, make sure these phones are programmed so that when you dial 911 it goes out. Wont cost anything. The programmers themselves have said, hey, if you have a problem, let us know. Well come out and fix that for free. So all it takes is this government saying, just do it. So when a child or adult or anyone dies 911 it goes out, and i thank my friend, marsha blackburn, i thank senator klobuchar for her work, my staff, carolyn, can drew particularly worked on this. But tomorrow, kari would have turned 36. And i believe that this will prevent any other karis in the future. From having their birthday celebrated after theyre deceased. This will be a legacy for kari, for hank, for their family, for her daughter and i thank everyone involved in making this happen. Thank you. And i thank my Democrat Friends for working with us on this. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle we continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance i recognize dr. Burgess for two minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Burgess i thank the gentleman for the recognition. Mr. Speaker, we all teach our kids. We teach them how to stay safe, how to respond to an emergency. They learn things like stop, drop, and roll for fires, dont talk to strangers, look both ways before you cross the street. And dial 911 in emergencies. Unfortunately, there is no lesson explaining that on some phones, you must dial 9 to get an outside line before you dial 911. Other phones even have additional numbers and theyre not the same for every phone system. Multiline phone systems like those found in offices, our offices, hotels, hospitals, make our lives easier by condensing multiple line into a single phone. One feature of multiline phone systems is that in order to get outside of the internal lines, you must dial a specific code or set of digits. Doesnt seem like a big deal or even necessarily life threatening, but for this young girl trying to save her mother that is exactly what a multiline phone system in marshall, texas, became. Weve heard the story. 2013. Kari dunn stabbed by her estranged husband while her daughter attempted to dial 911 multiple times. She knew the number to call to save her mothers life. But she didnt know to dial 9 to get an outside line. She didnt realize what a multiphone system represented. The Emergency Personnel subsequently were not notified in time. The energy and Commerce Committee marked up this bill in a Previous Congress and supported its passage into law. I was grate to feel support the bill back then. Im grate to feel mr. Gohmert for continuing to press this issue. I look forward to voting for this again. This tragedy occurred in texas. But it could have happened anywhere. In emergencies, every minute counts. We must remove obstacles to Emergency Response and this bill does just that. I yield back to the gentleman. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas yields. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle we continue to reserve our time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from illinois, mr. Shimkus. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Shimkus thank you, mr. Speaker. Its a great day. Came down here also with congresswoman eshoo, we chair the bipartisan 911 caucus. 50 year sass great anniversary. The caucus has been around for 15 years. Its a true, bipartisan development. When anna and i started, i was it was comrade bushes in the senate and Hillary Clinton on the senate side. Because 911 service, addressing the problems that roll out as we have a successful program, theres nothing perfect, we have to come back and revisit it. But its like baseball, apple pie, chevrolet, what could be wrong with being focused on getting Emergency Services to people in need. And thats why 911 is such a great service. I want to thank my colleague from texas, mr. Gohmert, for bringing this up. And we always have to keep changing, updating. As technology moves if the dialup phone to the iphone and we start doing texts and we start doing video, the 911 caucus works with industry, communicate sector, peace apps to make sure our first line responders have the best opportunity to find, as anna said, what floor . Thats a big issue. Technology will overcome that someday and weve got to achieve what we can achieve now but never shy away from these facts that we can always refine and get better. This is a good start. I want to thank my colleague from texas. It appreciate his work. I do appreciate my friends on the democrat side for their commitment and support on this, over the years and not just today. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Doyle ill close for our side now, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i want to first congratulate representative gohmert and senator klobuchar for this piece of legislation. I hope that our friends on the republican side will work with us to improve the location accuracy for these multiline systems. I think thats an important piece of Unfinished Business that we need to do to make this bill even better. We support the bill and with that, mr. Speaker, i will yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Lance thank you, mr. Speaker. This is the way congress should work, in a bicamera, bipartisan capacity. I think those of us who serve on the energy and Commerce Committee are very proud of our service there. S the committee and the house of representatives that in the house of representatives that sends the most bills to the floor. The most bills that pass. The most bills that pass in the senate. The most bills that reach the desk of the president of the United States. This is true of president obama as im sure it would be true of president trump. And this act will improve the lives of the american people. We mourn the loss of, the terrible tragedy in texas but out of that terrible tragedy we hope to improve the american nation and this certainly will codo that. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore with both sides yielding back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and concur in the Senate Amendment to h. R. 4582. Those in favor say aye. H. R. 582. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. 2 3 being in the affirmative mr. Lance i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this otion will be postponed. Pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject the senate is trying to get to an agreement to take a cloture vote and end debate on the budget bill at 1 45 p. M. Eastern. This needs 60 ayes. If they get 60 the vote would pass the budget bill would come next. Need a simple majority. Nothing locked in yet. Watch on cspan2. If and when it is likely to pass the senate, it comes back to the house later on today. Thats what the house will be waiting for here in this recess. Huffington post recording that House Democratic leadership is urging their members to vote against the budget bill because it, quote, fails to provide a path forward on protecting dreamers. Although youll hear in just a bit from nancy pelosi, the democratic leader, she said in that News Conference she was not actively whipping against the budget bill. Lets do that. Were hoping to take you live to the white house at 2 30 eastern as we wait for that and other developments on capitol hill. The briefings from today starting with speaker ryan and 20 minutes after that demo