Congress wants to hear from YOU! How has Dodd-Frank affected you?

Feb 14, 2017

Below is a letter from Arkansas Congressman French Hill, a whip at the House Financial Services Committee. Hill is interested in writing a bill that actually empowers the consumer and small lenders including credit unions called the Financial Choice Act.

Send your emails to : French.Hill@mail.house.gov

Subject line: “Dodd-Frank Anecdote.”

Dear Friends,

Much of my professional life was spent in banking, with the last 15 years spent running a community bank in Little Rock. It was here that I saw first-hand the damaging effects the Dodd-Frank Act had on smaller banks and the customers who had traditionally come to us seeking capital and access to credit. In part, this is what inspired me to seek public office and use my 30-plus years in the banking industry to provide sound input in creating financial regulations that make sense for the American people.

At our bank, our primary customers were small business owners, families wanting to purchase a home, or those looking to start a business. In 2010, Dodd-Frank was signed into law with the promise of helping smaller financial institutions thrive and ending “too big to fail,” while pumping life back into a sputtering economy.

However, since then, none of that has happened. Instead, the biggest banks have gotten bigger, with “too big to fail” essentially being written into the law. Instead, “too small to succeed” has manifested and created a banking vacuum in Small and Medium Town, USA. Our country has experienced the slowest economic growth since World War II, and business formation is touching Carter-era lows. Dodd-Frank hasn’t lived up to its promise, and it is time to move beyond it.

As the Whip on the House Financial Services Committee, I will be working with members of our Committee to craft a bill that will actually meet the needs of consumers and help spur economic growth. Through our Financial CHOICE Act, we will be reforming the misdirected regulatory policies that have hurt consumers and business of all sizes.

Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and the rest of the members of the Committee are seeking input as we design and then debate the Financial CHOICE Act. If you are a banker, a consumer, or an industry expert who has a story about how Dodd-Frank has affected you, we want to hear it. Please send those stories to me at French.Hill@mail.house.gov with the subject line “Dodd-Frank Anecdote.” Your experiences are important to us, and we want to make sure that they are captured as we retool regulatory policy so that it positively affects economic growth in our country.

Sincerely,