Joyce Beatty

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Housing for the 21st Century Act.

First, let me thank Ranking Member Waters and Chairman Hill for their leadership.

This landmark, bipartisan package represents a major step forward in addressing the Nation's challenges in housing, and I am especially proud that six of my bills are included in this legislation.

My HOME Investment Partnerships Reauthorization and Improvement Act will make it easier for local organizations to fund affordable housing projects, while another provision strengthens coordination between the Departments of Housing, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs.

The package also includes key banking measures that will help community banks and minority depository institutions grow and compete.

I started my professional career in public housing and working as a consultant for HUD, so I know too many families are being priced out of the housing market. This legislation delivers practical solutions that expand opportunity and increase homeownership.

Again, let me thank Chairman Hill and Ranking Member Waters for their support. It is time to make homeownership more than a dream. It must be a reality.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 3234, the Keeping Deposits Local Act, which I am very proud to co-lead with Congressman Emmer.

This bill modernizes the treatment of reciprocal deposits to help small banks and midsize banks improve liquidity, increase local community lending, and better compete for larger accounts, all without jeopardizing the safety and the soundness of our financial system.

Following the bank failures in 2023, we have seen many banks turn to reciprocal deposits to meet consumer demand, to increase their insured deposits, and, really, to prevent capital flight.

However, community banks across the country and regional banks like in my home district, banks like Huntington, Fifth Third, and KeyBank are quickly running up against the current $5 billion or 20 percent threshold that was established in 2018.

This means that they are limited in their capacity to attract deposits from nonprofits, small businesses, and local governments and municipalities that want to support economic and community development.

To solve this problem, this bill replaces the current cap with a tiered system to ensure that the greatest benefit goes to the banks that need it the most: minority depository institutions, MDIs; community development financial institutions, or CDFIs; and inner-city, rural, and small banks at the front lines of providing financial services to underserved communities.

Mr. Speaker, increasing nonbrokered treatment of reciprocal deposits will greatly support these institutions by allowing them to access stable funding to help finance affordable housing projects, small business loans, and community infrastructure.

That is why I am proud to say that this bill has the support of the Ohio Bankers League and the Ohio regional banks. It is a bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our chairman, Congressman Hill, and I thank my ranking member, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, for supporting and pushing this bill forward. I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Adelphi Bank, a Black-owned bank in Columbus, Ohio, in my district, led by my dear friends, President and CEO Jordan Miller and its founder, Commissioner Kevin Boyce.

Adelphi continues to reach new heights, as they were just named by Columbus Business First as the number one bank in central Ohio with the fastest-growing deposits.

It is for this reason that I have worked to pass my bipartisan bill, the Advancing the Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act, which passed unanimously on Tuesday. This bill will provide critical resources to minority depository institutions just like Adelphi.

I thank Ranking Member Waters and Chairman Hill for bringing my bill to the floor. I also thank Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank, and KeyBank for their support, alongside CitiBank, an early supporter of the mentor-protege program that recently provided technical assistance to Adelphi Bank.