Alleviating Stress Test Burdens to Help Investors Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUSTOFF of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4566, the Alleviating Stress Test Burdens to Help Investors Act, which was introduced by my colleague, Representative Poliquin.

Mr. Speaker, millions of Americans rely on registered funds to invest and save for their future, and they rely on asset management advisers to assist them in making major financial decisions, such as paying college tuition, saving for retirement, or buying a home.

However, too often these advisers have their hands tied complying with burdensome regulations that were not intended for the type of financial institutions that they serve. Following the enactment of Dodd-Frank, a framework was created to assess systemic risk posed by financial institutions, and this framework looked at the risk from a bank-centric approach.

In addition, Dodd-Frank required all financial companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion to conduct various annual stress tests to comply with the law. Now, unfortunately, this broad definition sweeps in registered investment companies and requires that these nonbank institutions be held accountable for the same stress tests as banks.

This particular stress test does not make sense for the asset management industry and only adds costs that will end up putting the burden on investors who rely on these funds.

Again, the U.S. asset management industry is critical in promoting diverse investment and savings opportunities for individuals, for families, and for businesses. This important legislation would eliminate unnecessary costs for nonbank financial institutions that have not been designated as systemically important by removing Dodd- Frank's bank-centric, mandatory stress test requirement.

As we continue to explore new ways to help families save for their future or buy a new home, we should remain focused on improving their ability to invest. I want to thank Representative Poliquin and Chairman Hensarling for their important work on this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important bill.

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