[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 8, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL

  (Mr. LaFALCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, the Community Reinvestment Act was created 
by the Congress in 1977 to combat discrimination by encouraging 
federally insured financial institutions to help meet the credit needs 
of the communities they serve. I am here today to report that the 
Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA, has been a tremendous success.
  CRA's success results from the effective partnerships of municipal 
leaders, local development advocacy organizations, and community-minded 
financial institutions. Working together, the CRA has proven that local 
investment is not only good for business but critical to improving the 
quality of life for low- and moderate-income residents in the 
communities financial institutions serve.
  We will be hearing about other CRA success stories in the next few 
weeks, and I want to applaud the financial services industry for their 
extraordinary record of meeting their CRA obligations. At present, it 
is estimated that almost 98 percent of all financial institutions have 
achieved a satisfactory or better CRA compliance. We need to keep and 
strengthen CRA.

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