financialservices.house.gov

Cmte Financial Services (R)
Contact:



Chairman Hensarling Statement on Final Volcker Rule


Washington, Dec 10 -

Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) made the following statement after regulators issued a final version of the “Volcker Rule” on Tuesday.

“The Volcker Rule is just the latest example of Washington’s regulatory overkill that ends up hurting more than it helps. My constituents in East Texas didn’t cause the financial crisis, yet the Public Utility Commission of Texas warned that the Volcker Rule will result in higher electricity prices. Teachers didn’t cause the financial crisis, yet TIAA-CREF warned that the Volcker Rule will hurt their pension funds. In fact, not even proprietary trading – which the Volcker Rule seeks to ban – caused the financial crisis, as Paul Volcker himself has acknowledged. We know Washington regulations, not the lack of them, helped lead us into the crisis. So three years and 18,000 comment letters after the original Volcker Rule proposal, we are left with one more incomprehensible Washington regulation — this one weighing in at nearly 1,000 pages — that will do nothing to help our nation overcome the slowest, weakest, non-recovery recovery since the Great Depression.

“So I do not need to look any further than the retired couple living on a fixed income who could face higher utility bills or teachers who could see the pension they spent years contributing to diminish before their very eyes to see the very real and very negative effects of the Volcker Rule.

“Hearings in our committee also demonstrated that the Volcker Rule will make it harder for businesses and consumers everywhere to get the credit they need. And because no other country in the world has imposed a similar burden, the Volcker Rule puts our capital markets at a competitive disadvantage in today’s global economy.”