The American Bankers Association today urged House lawmakers to advance several bills on a host of issues, from National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization to supporting de novo bank formation.
The House Financial Services Committee met for the first of two days of markup hearings on nearly two dozen bills. In a memo submitted ahead of the hearings, ABA expressed support for the following legislation:
- H.R. 5577, the NFIP Extension Act of 2026, led by Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), would extend the National Flood Insurance Program through Sept. 30, 2026, and make it retroactive to Sept. 30 of this year. “This extension of the NFIP is critical to the extension of mortgage and commercial credit by the banking industry and to ensure homeowners and businesses continue to have access to affordable, reliable flood insurance coverage,” ABA said.
- H.R. 6553, the Tailoring and Indexing Enhanced Regulations (TIER) Act, led by Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), would index various asset-based thresholds for bank regulations to nominal GDP. The bill focuses on mid-size and regional banks and primarily includes indexing for enhanced prudential standards, periodic and supervisory stress tests.
- H.R. 6554, the Community Bank Representation Act, by Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), would expand community bank representation on the Federal Reserve board by providing a more explicit role in the supervision and regulation of banks with less than $17 million in total assets, indexed annually for nominal GDP.
- H.R. 6536, Rural Depositories Revitalization Study Act, by Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), would require the prudential regulators to jointly study ways to improve the growth, capital adequacy, and profitability of rural depository institutions and to identify regulatory barriers to the formation of new depository institutions.
- H.R. 6551, the New Bank Application Numbers Knowledge Act (New BANK) Act, by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), would require the Fed, FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the National Credit Union Administration to publish annual reports on applications received for federal depository institution charters, depository institution holding companies, federal deposit insurance and state depository institution charters.
- H.R. 6546, Merger Process Review Act, by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), would require the inspector general of each banking regulator to review its merger review procedures every three years and submit a report to Congress.
- H.R. 6570, the Merger Agreement Approvals Clarity and Predictability Act, by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), would require the comptroller general to study the use of commitments, conditions and other aspects of the merger review procedures by regulators in connection with bank merger applications.
- H.R. 6544, The Regulatory Efficiency, Verification, Itemization and Enhanced Workflow (REVIEW) Act, by Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.), would amend the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996, or EGRPRA, to build on the existing regulatory review process by increasing the frequency from every 10 years to every seven year It also would require the Fed, FDIC, OCC and NCUA to conduct an internal review of the cumulative effects of their regulations.
- H.R. 6550, the American Financial Institution Regulatory Sovereignty and Transparency (American FIRST) Act, by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), would require the Fed, OCC and FDIC to include in their annual reports information on their interactions with global financial regulatory or supervisory forums like the Basel Committee.
ABA also noted that has not taken any positions on any deposit insurance reform or bank resolution reform legislation that has been proposed, and that it is currently reviewing the committee’s bipartisan housing bill – H.R. 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act – with its member banks.
