[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




REFORM IN OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM CANNOT SACRIFICE THE HEALTH OF OUR SMALL 
                         FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

  (Mr. LUCAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, an uneven playing field already exists 
between large financial institutions and smaller community banks. 
Rather than working to close that gap, however, President Obama has 
decided to further our community bankers' burdens with his Consumer 
Financial Protection Agency.
  Under this new agency, community banks that have continued to provide 
a reliable source of credit to their customers will be saddled with 
additional costs and regulations that could potentially drive many out 
of business. In addition, these increased costs will be passed along to 
consumers in the form of higher bank fees and less availability of 
credit. So, exactly how is this supposed to help our current financial 
crisis?
  It appears as though, once again, this administration plans to force 
Main Street to pay for the mistakes made on Wall Street as they 
continue to follow their financial policy of ``too big to fail, too 
small to matter.''
  Reform is needed within our financial system, but that reform cannot 
sacrifice the health of our small financial institutions.

                          ____________________