Andy Barr
Representative for Kentucky · Republican · United States
“Mr. Speaker, I want to start by applauding my good friend from Arkansas, Chairman French Hill, for his leadership on this critical legislation. Great job working across the aisle for bipartisan support for this legislation that will help strengthen Main Street America.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Here is the hard truth: Community banks have suffered under a regulatory framework that forgot who the system should serve. For too long, Washington has been writing rules as if every bank and credit union in America is a trillion-dollar global institution. They are not. They are our hometown banks and community financial institutions.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“This legislation requires regulators to ensure clarity and predictability in the merger process so that healthy banks can grow and troubled banks can find partners before they fail. It ensures that when banks do fail, like Silicon Valley Bank, community banks aren't shut out of the resolution process by design.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Competition and choice are good for America, good for consumers, and good for financial stability. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a link to 14 letters of support from the Consumer Bankers Association, the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Association o…”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Despite what those on the other side of the aisle may say, this bill does nothing to prevent law enforcement or regulators from investigating criminal activity, nor does it change the stringent requirements on financial institutions to comply with existing anti- money laundering laws or suspicious activity reporting requirements.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
“This is about preventing government actors from using financial data to target Americans who are engaged in conduct expressly protected by the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms, a fundamental liberty for Americans.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
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“The Main Street Capital Access Act is a critical step toward restoring the financial backbone of this country. Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“This legislation requires regulators to ensure clarity and predictability in the merger process so that healthy banks can grow and troubled banks can find partners before they fail. It ensures that when banks do fail, like Silicon Valley Bank, community banks aren't shut out of the resolution process by design. Finally, this legislation recognizes reality: Innovation is happening. The question is whether it happens inside the banking system, where it is supervised and safe, or outside, where it isn't. This bill lets banks partner, modernize, and compete. Community banks, Mr. Speaker, are the financial infrastructure of America--rural America, suburban America, urban America. When they thrive, small towns thrive. When they are regulated out of existence, capital dries up and opportunity for local ownership disappears.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Here is the hard truth: Community banks have suffered under a regulatory framework that forgot who the system should serve. For too long, Washington has been writing rules as if every bank and credit union in America is a trillion-dollar global institution. They are not. They are our hometown banks and community financial institutions. These guardrails that the ranking member talks about rolling back, we are not rolling back guardrails for big, multitrillion-dollar banks. We are talking about small community financial institutions. The goal is simple: Regulation should follow the risk, not the ZIP Code or the political fashion. A $500 million community bank in rural Kentucky, rural Arkansas, or rural Michigan should not be regulated under the same framework built for a trillion-dollar institution operating around the globe.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Competition and choice are good for America, good for consumers, and good for financial stability. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a link to 14 letters of support from the Consumer Bankers Association, the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Independent Community Bankers of America, the National Association of Home Builders, and others: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn :aaid:sc:US:4c869bbb-74d2-4d1e- befb-1b3aba1a0be3 Community banks and credit unions are the financial backbone of this country. They finance farms, factories, first-time home buyers, and the local entrepreneurs who create jobs in every corner of America. These institutions don't just serve communities. They are part of the community.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I want to start by applauding my good friend from Arkansas, Chairman French Hill, for his leadership on this critical legislation. Great job working across the aisle for bipartisan support for this legislation that will help strengthen Main Street America. The Main Street Capital Access Act is exactly the kind of reform needed to advance this committee's goal of making community banking great again. Over the past 18 months, we have worked hard to develop over two dozen banking reform bills--many of them with strong bipartisan support--and combined them into one multifaceted package designed to strengthen our community financial institutions, not big banks, like the ranking member is referring to, community banks, Main Street banks, midsize banks. If we want to help hold big banks accountable, then what we need is competition.”
House of Representatives21 July 2026Source ↗
“Rather than blaming gun violence, Congress would be more productive focusing on the root causes of homicide: the breakdown of the family, lack of active parenting, mental illness, open-border policies, policies to defund the police, soft-on-crime policies like no cash bail, and politically motivated violence, like the kind that was behind the murder of Charlie Kirk. Addressing these societal problems does not require unconstitutional surveillance of Americans. H.R. 1181 establishes commonsense guardrails to prevent regulatory abuse and safeguards constitutional freedoms. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
“This is about preventing government actors from using financial data to target Americans who are engaged in conduct expressly protected by the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms, a fundamental liberty for Americans. Americans should not have to worry that lawful purchases that they made will be used to create lists, databases, or surveillance tools aimed at this constitutionally protected activity. {time} 1540 My friend, the ranking member from California, cited statistics about annual and daily deaths that she says are the result of gun violence. Respectfully, the right to bear arms is not the cause of violence. One murder is too many in America, period. We all agree on that.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
“Despite what those on the other side of the aisle may say, this bill does nothing to prevent law enforcement or regulators from investigating criminal activity, nor does it change the stringent requirements on financial institutions to comply with existing anti- money laundering laws or suspicious activity reporting requirements. However, what my friend from California who just spoke doesn't say, but it needs to be said, is that the lawful purchase of a firearm protected by the Second Amendment is not in and of itself suspicious activity, nor should it be surveilled by the government. What it does is prevent the creation of a framework that could be used to monitor, flag, and discourage lawful purchases from federally licensed firearm retailers.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
“1181 prohibits payment card networks and financial institutions from requiring or assigning merchant category codes, or MCCs, that single out firearm retailers for separate tracking and monitoring. Unfortunately, we have seen repeated examples of progressive regulators and government officials pressuring financial institutions to target lawful industries and lawful customers. From Operation Choke Point under the Obama administration and Choke Point 2.0 under Biden to New York financial regulators pressuring insurance companies to abandon longstanding relationships with the NRA, Americans have legitimate reasons to be concerned about the weaponization of the financial system.”
House of Representatives14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I will finish the story. The tire was irreparable. She had to buy a new tire for a couple of hundred dollars she didn't have. She was not able to keep up with her car. She had to buy the new tire. There was no choice. She ran her debit card, and it covered the tire. The family went home. She checked her account when she got home, wondering how it was paid for, when she didn't have the money in it. It was her overdraft that covered it. She thanked me that her community bank was there for her to cover her overdraft so she could keep moving without having to call for help. Mr. Speaker, needless to say, the banker was tremendously humbled that she was able to help this mother out due to the overdraft. They are there in time of need.”
House of Representatives9 April 2025Source ↗
“The big Wall Street banks can afford to go without these fees. It is the community banks in our neighborhoods and in our communities who can't afford to provide this product without the fees. Mr. Speaker, just in conclusion, this is a real-life testimonial about the value of these overdraft protections from a community bank in my district: We have a customer with two children and a husband in the military. As you know, things can be difficult when one parent is deployed and one parent is alone with children, trying to manage finances, school, after-school activities, and church. As the customer said, things can be overwhelming, even exclusive of her husband's deployment. This customer approached me in church with her head down, saying that she was having a tough time with things.”
House of Representatives9 April 2025Source ↗
“Consumers choose to use this service, and they opt into the service voluntarily. The first option under the new rule forces financial institutions to treat overdrafts as extensions of credit. This change would severely limit access to the product, especially for those who need it most. Financial institutions would have to underwrite each overdraft transaction, evaluating a borrower's ability to pay a relatively small amount. This would be both impractical and inefficient. The alternative proposed by the Bureau, a safe harbor charge cap of $5, would force many banks to exit this product altogether. Credit unions would also discontinue this service. This would price out the very consumers who rely on overdrafts the most. They use the word ``predatory.'' Mr. Speaker, let me tell you what is predatory.”
House of Representatives9 April 2025Source ↗
“For my friends on the other side of the aisle to use incendiary language like ``shameful,'' I submit what is shameful is to take away this lifeline from our constituents. Consumers understand the costs associated with overdraft services, and they willingly opt in because they find value in the protection that it offers. They are not coerced. They make an informed decision, knowing that a small, predictable fee prevents far more severe consequences like a bounced check or late fees. It is a convenience that allows consumers to avoid the embarrassment of being turned down at the point of sale. Unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues refuse to recognize this basic truth, choosing instead to label overdraft products as predatory. Let me reiterate that point, Mr. Speaker.”
House of Representatives9 April 2025Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Chairman Hill, for bringing this important resolution of disapproval to the House floor, nullifying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's disastrous overdraft rule. Let me set the record straight, Mr. Speaker. This resolution of disapproval doesn't increase fees, as my friends on the other side of the aisle insinuate. In fact, what it does do is it invalidates a regulation that will take this critical lifeline away from many of my constituents. Indeed, for many families across this country, living paycheck to paycheck, overdraft services are a critical safety net. Without this service, necessities would become harder to obtain. Overdraft services are not a luxury. They are a lifeline.”
House of Representatives9 April 2025Source ↗