Frankly Speaking: A New Opportunity for Serving You

FRANKLY SPEAKING

By Congressman Frank Guinta

A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR SERVING YOU

I just received an important new committee assignment in Congress, and want to tell you about the new opportunities it provides me to serve you and your family.

I have been appointed to serve on the House Committee on Financial Services.  As its name suggests, its work involves the financial institutions that touch our lives every day.  This Committee is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the financial services industry, such as banking, securities, insurance, and housing.  It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve, the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and many others.

Specifically, I will be serving on the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, and International Monetary Policy and Trade subcommittees.

So, why does this matter?  There are several reasons.

First, I am one of only five New Englanders serving on the Financial Services Committee.  Since my first day on the job, I have been working hard to bring more New Hampshire thinking to Washington, and making sure there is less Washington thinking in New Hampshire.  I share your belief in fiscal responsibility, and this new assignment gives me more opportunity to apply it.

One of my major focuses on the Committee will be the access to credit for New Hampshire families and small businesses. We’ve seen through the Dodd-Frank Act a willing to punish everyone in the financial services community – large or small – instead of the violators. While I strongly support a “Cop on the Beat” approach to financial regulation, we should focus on smart oversight, not produce a storm of regulation.  The unintended consequences of these policy decisions hit your local community bank, credit union and small businesses the hardest. 

Credit availability has decreased as banks have tightened lending standards in response to burdensome regulations and an uncertain business environment. Small banks are closing or being sold to large competitors as a result of Dodd-Frank’s regulations.  In 1997, there were 9,143 small banks in the United States; today there are only 6,263.  The U.S. is on pace to lose 418 small banks this year.  Because only 36 percent of the 400 rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act have been fully implemented, the true extent of the Act’s effect on credit is yet to be felt.

Access to credit is vitally important to our state’s small businesses.  Because financial institutions must comply with new regulations, the costs associated with them will likely be passed on to small businesses, and that could lead to higher costs for products and services that you buy as a consumer.  Making matters even worse, compliance costs are disproportionally higher for small businesses.  That could lead to less competitive markets dominated by bigger entities, such as large banks, with higher prices for businesses.  Amid all this uncertainty, these actions could decrease credit availability, make available credit more expensive, hurt small businesses, stunt job creation and jeopardize full economic recovery.

Our economy is increasingly interconnected these days.  One sector influences another.  When one suffers, trouble can spill over into another.  When one prospers, it is good for the others as well.      

I am honored by this appointment.  I will continue working hard to help improve the economy for all of us and to return opportunity for everyone.  I will bring that perspective to my work on the Financial Services Committee as I encourage the return of the good, middle-class jobs that Granite Staters want.

I look forward to reporting back to you in two weeks on the latest developments in Washington.  In the meantime, if I can be of service to you, or if you want to share your thoughts, suggestions or concerns with me, please call either my district office in Manchester at (603) 641-9536 or my Washington office at (202) 225-5456, or contact me through my website at www.Guinta.House.Gov.  You can also follow what I’m doing 24/7 on Facebook at www.facebook.com/repfrankguinta and on Twitter at @RepFrankGuinta.   

Until next time, please know that I am always on your side and am actively fighting for New Hampshire’s interests in Washington.

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