Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.

As a member of the subcommittee, I am proud of the product that Chairman Crenshaw and each of the subcommittee members have produced this year. This bill provides critical resources that truly respect taxpayers. In fact, this legislation is $1.5 billion below last year's spending level, and it is 2.7--almost $3 billion below what the President requested.

In this year's bill, we focused on peeling away excessive government regulations which have made it harder for all hardworking Americans to access the financial markets and the regulations that have depressed economic growth that we have all seen and experienced in our districts.

Our bill brings the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the appropriations process, ensuring that the money it spends has proper oversight and is accountable to all the people's representatives.

We also eliminate a slush fund at the Securities and Exchange Commission which was created by Dodd-Frank.

Additionally, this bill includes provisions that ensure the failure of any financial institution is dealt with through the time-tested process of bankruptcy and not through a bailout process. We included language that limits the disastrous too big to fail concept from expanding beyond the banking sector to nonbank institutions. These changes help curb some of the worst parts of the administration's financial overreach over the past few years.

In the bill, we also focus on improving accountability at the government agencies, in particular, the IRS. Our commonsense reforms include prohibiting the IRS from rehiring fired employees, banning all their bonuses, outlawing their ability to target groups based on political or religious beliefs, and cutting the agency by another $236 million. This in itself should be plenty of reason for all Members to support this bill and get excited about it. Now, while we have slashed the IRS by more than $1 billion and cracked down on its leadership over the last 5 years, we must continue keeping it on a short leash.

Finally, this bill supports our Nation's small businesses by prioritizing funding for the Small Business Administration.

Mr. Chairman, I ask all Members to support this good bill put together by Chairman Crenshaw.

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