Bill Text: TX HCR94 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Urging Congress to repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 10)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-05-19 - Referred to Business & Commerce [HCR94 Detail]
Download: Texas-2011-HCR94-Comm_Sub.html
| 82R17922 CBE-D | |||
| By: Flynn, Chisum, et al. | H.C.R. No. 94 | ||
| Substitute the following for H.C.R. No. 94: | |||
| By: Pitts | C.S.H.C.R. No. 94 | ||
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| WHEREAS, The banking and insurance industries are essential | ||
| to the continued growth and well-being of Texas, serving as | ||
| important hubs of economic activity for communities throughout the | ||
| state; the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection | ||
| Act not only poses a major threat to these businesses, but will | ||
| serve as a destructive influence on the entire state; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed by the United | ||
| States Congress on July 21, 2010, consists of 2,300 pages of new | ||
| statutory language that will result in the promulgation of more | ||
| than 250 new federal regulations; supporters of the legislation | ||
| claim that it will equip federal regulators with powers to prevent | ||
| another financial debacle like the country experienced from 2007 | ||
| through 2009, but in reality, the bill sets up a regulatory regime | ||
| that allows "Too Big to Fail" banks and Wall Street to continue to | ||
| avoid adequate scrutiny while it punishes traditional Texas banks | ||
| that had nothing to do with the most recent crisis; and | ||
| WHEREAS, A new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection is | ||
| established to regulate all consumer financial services in the | ||
| United States; the bureau will receive hundreds of millions of | ||
| dollars in annual funding from the Federal Reserve System and is not | ||
| subject to congressional oversight through the appropriations | ||
| process; it will have the power to decide what types of financial | ||
| products can and cannot be offered, and it will have the power to | ||
| set prices for consumer loans, mortgages, and small business loans; | ||
| and | ||
| WHEREAS, If this new agency were to become what its advocates | ||
| have envisioned, it will be at least as large as the Internal | ||
| Revenue Service; Texas banks will have fewer and more expensive | ||
| products to offer to their customers, and the credit needs of rural | ||
| and urban Texans will be determined by an agency in Washington; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection will | ||
| also greatly increase compliance costs for Texas community banks; | ||
| smaller banks will see their compliance and employee costs increase | ||
| by tens of thousands of dollars on an annual basis, resulting in | ||
| millions of dollars in loans lost to area communities; furthermore, | ||
| these new costs will drive down profitability and lead to the | ||
| consolidation of the banking industry; fewer banks means less | ||
| credit and fewer choices for borrowers across the state; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Even before the effective date of the Dodd-Frank | ||
| Act, federal bank regulators have been examining banks and imposing | ||
| sanctions that are harming credit availability all over Texas; in | ||
| the name of consumer protection and fair lending, the federal | ||
| agencies are curtailing services, such as overdraft protection, | ||
| that are wanted by Texas bank customers; the limitation on bank | ||
| service fees will increase costs for all consumer services and lead | ||
| to the end of offerings such as free checking; during fair lending | ||
| examinations, banks are being told that discrepancies of a few | ||
| cents in the charging of interest rates can lead to referrals to the | ||
| U.S. Department of Justice; this has led to a chilling effect and a | ||
| reluctance by community banks to make small consumer and business | ||
| loans; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Another example of federal intervention in the | ||
| pricing of financial products is the rate caps placed on | ||
| interchange fees for debit cards; the Dodd-Frank Act takes the | ||
| pricing of these services from the marketplace and places it in the | ||
| hands of the Federal Reserve; the most recent proposal from the | ||
| Federal Reserve would so severely restrict interchange fees that | ||
| banks and credit unions will be unable to cover the full costs | ||
| associated with providing checking accounts and debit cards; as a | ||
| result, banks and credit unions will be forced to cease offering | ||
| some debit and checking products and to increase fees on those they | ||
| continue to provide; lower income Texans who have obtained greater | ||
| access to affordable retail banking, partly because of interchange | ||
| fees, will have less access to traditional institutions and be | ||
| forced to go back to the less regulated "shadow" banking system with | ||
| its increased costs; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to | ||
| repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection | ||
| Act; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
| Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
| members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
| this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
