[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 8905]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMUNITY BANKS AND DODD-FRANK

  (Mrs. ROBY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, since the enactment of Dodd-Frank in 2010, a 
total of 357 financial institutions have been forced out of business. 
Four community banks in Alabama are on that list. That amounts to 
nearly $7.5 billion less in Alabama's economy that could be lent to 
small businesses and farmers. In all, nearly 20 percent of Alabama's 
community banks have either closed or been forced to merge under Dodd-
Frank.
  Why is this happening? Because homegrown banks can't keep up with the 
crazy compliance costs that Dodd-Frank mandates. Here is an example:
  One credit union in Alabama's Wiregrass region, their compliance 
department size has tripled. They estimate that these new costs have 
limited their growth by as much as $60 million. That is not right. 
Hometown lenders in Alabama didn't cause the financial crisis of 2009, 
but now they and their customers are paying the price.
  There is no question we need strong laws to govern our financial 
markets, but Dodd-Frank is not the answer. We now have a chance to fix 
this broken law, untangle this regulatory web, and unleash the capital 
investment that is so crucial to economic growth.
  I urge my colleagues to support the CHOICE Act.

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