After spending 30 years in the financial services industry, I have seen many individuals achieve the American dream through hard work and dedication. These individuals weren’t alone through their journey; many also had the help of local financial institutions like community banks and credit unions. However, those hometown institutions are now being overwhelmed by increasingly burdensome regulations, many of which stem directly from passage of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

I hear often from these local institutions about how they are frustrated with this law. While these small institutions were not part of the financial problem, they have been roped into the solution by this law. As a result, Dodd-Frank is drowning them under hundreds of new rules and mandates, leaving them struggling to keep up. And this combination of endless new regulations and an increasingly hostile examination environment is lethal. Since January 2007, 484 banks in the United States have failed. The most recent data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission shows that the total number of banks in the nation has fallen below 7,000, the lowest number since at least 1934.

 Most of the institutions that are disappearing are our small community banks, those that serve neighborhoods and our small towns in every corner of the country. These are the institutions that make loans to families they’ve known for generations, that sponsor little league teams, provide scholarships to students, and make over one half of the small business loans in our country. These are the institutions that help their communities thrive and their customers realize the American dream.

As a member on the Financial Services Committee, I hear regularly from these institutions that are weighed down with these federal regulations that are promulgated by bureaucrats who have no real-world experience in the industry. They don’t foresee the unintended consequences of their actions, and could seemingly care less.

I believe we have to take action and advance through both the House and the Senate common-sense legislative reforms that will provide relief to these institutions. I have introduced the Community Lending Enhancement and Regulatory (CLEAR) Relief Act that contains several provisions that would help community banks and credit unions foster economic growth and better serve their communities through targeted regulatory relief. This bill would provide, among other things, an increase in the Federal Reserve’s Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement threshold, Qualified Mortgage status for loans originated and held in portfolio by institutions and relief from certain costly escrow requirements.

We must demand common-sense and responsibility from federal regulators so that we can return to a time when examiners worked with community banks and credit unions, not against them. The current landscape is grim, but it is my sincerest hope that Congress can make progress on this front, not just for the benefit of the institutions but for the communities they serve and allow our citizens to continue to realize the American dream.