Stephen F. Lynch

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3074, the Common Cents Act, sponsored by Representative McClain. I thank Representative McClain, along with Representative Robert Garcia, for their work on this legislation.

The idea to end penny production is not a new one. In fact, other countries, like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have stopped producing pennies themselves. However, many of these countries executed this plan through a deliberate and meaningful process.

Unlike the approach taken by other countries, in February 2025, President Donald Trump abruptly announced on his Truth Social media account that he directed the Treasury to stop minting pennies. This decision, not surprisingly, ignored the critical role and constitutional authority of Congress in regulating the currency.

While the Secretary of the Treasury did carry out President Trump's orders, the administration failed to provide a strategic plan or guidance for the public on how to handle this change, which would impact all segments of the economy.

This sudden decision is emblematic of how the administration carries out policy. They do it suddenly, without expert engagement, without feedback, and without consideration of potential harms.

For these reasons, I was glad to see that Ranking Member Waters, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), Representative McClain, and Representative Garcia worked together for over a year to thoughtfully provide much-needed clarity to businesses and consumers in this legislation.

In its current form, this bill has made significant improvements from when it was first marked up in our committee. As drafted, the bill now allows businesses to round cash transactions if exact change cannot be provided, and it also authorizes businesses to continue to round in favor of customers.

This legislation also requires the Federal Reserve to prepare a strategic plan in connection with managing the circulation of the penny. Additionally, the bill will now grapple with potential unintended consequences that come from ending penny production, like rounding cash transactions on low-income and unbanked communities and more.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the gentleman from Arkansas for his leadership on this. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia), who is also the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Mrs. McClain and Mr. Garcia for their good work. The administration has already ceased penny production, but this legislation does the necessary work of providing meaningful guidance for consumers and businesses across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6556, the Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act, which I introduced in December 2025.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), our ranking member, who advanced this legislation unanimously within the committee.

Specifically, the Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act will prevent megabanks from dominating the bidding process for acquiring a failed bank if there are other eligible bids from well-capitalized and well- managed small and midsized banks.

In the three decades since 1994, the number of commercial banks has declined in this country by approximately 50 percent, hollowing out the small and midsized institutions that have traditionally housed local community capital.

Small to midsized banks are unable to compete with the larger institutions in the failed bank acquisition process, even when attainable opportunities arise which might result in a more favorable result for depositors and impacted businesses and communities.

For example, after the collapse of the First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank in 2023, which were the second, third, and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history, as part of the resolution process, Federal regulators, including the FDIC, structured an immensely favorable acquisition process to allow JPMorganChase, America's biggest bank at the time, to acquire the nearly $230 billion in assets and $103 billion in deposits from the failed First Republic Bank.

Multiple midsized banks sought to acquire First Republic Bank but failed to compete with J.P. Morgan's sheer asset holdings, estimated to be close to $4 trillion.

As part of that deal, the FDIC also entered into a comprehensive loss sharing agreement with JPMorganChase to incentivize that purchase.

In fact, the FDIC agreed to absorb 80 percent of all credit losses. After effectively winning the government auction, J.P. Morgan quickly announced plans to shut down one quarter of First Republic's 84 branches rather than preserving consumer access to their local branches. The closure also led to the firing of approximately 1,000 bank employees.

Acquisitions such as these are now the norm rather than the exception. This year, U.S. bank mergers and acquisitions have hit a 7- year high, up 45 percent since 2024.

Consumer advocacy organizations such as Americans for Financial Reform and Better Markets have raised serious concerns about the advantages afforded to large interconnected financial institutions like JPMorganChase in bidding for these failing banks, and as a result growing ever larger while accelerating the process of consolidation.

To that end, I introduced this legislation, the Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act, which if it were law at the time would have created a more level playing field between healthy medium-sized as well as larger banks to both stabilize markets but also to better serve depositors, businesses, and the impacted communities in which those banks are located while avoiding megabanks gobbling up smaller banks in the steady march toward consolidation.

Megabanks should not be allowed to take advantage of financial crises to increase their domination and pad their own profits.

This legislation would take an important step toward increasing competition and improving the resilience of our financial system from economic shocks.

I am proud that this bill was passed unanimously in committee by every Democrat, every Republican, and has the support of Americans for Financial Reform to boot.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Let me first of all thank Chairman Hill for his kind remarks and his astute observations on the circumstances that have brought us to this point. I will add that I believe this morning it was announced that JPMorganChase, which was the benefactor of this previous transaction, is now approaching $5 trillion in assets. That is indeed remarkable. Their market cap is about a trillion dollars, as well.

I think this legislation does point to that loophole that allows megabanks to acquire failing banks even when other eligible, well- managed small and midsize banks have submitted competing bids improving community and regional bank competitiveness and preventing further consolidation among our largest financial institutions.

Again, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as someone who grew up in the Old Colony Housing Projects in South Boston, Massachusetts, and as a cofounder of the Affordable Housing Caucus along with Reverend Emanuel Cleaver, Greg Meeks, and Ritchie Torres, I am proud to join my colleagues, French Hill from Arkansas; the gentlewoman from California, Maxine Waters; Chairman Flood; and Reverend Emanuel Cleaver from Kansas City in rising in support of this bill, which while it does not solve every issue we have today with housing in this country, it does a lot.

It stops the commoditization of housing by real estate companies and private equity firms that would compete with families in acquiring their first home.

I realize it took a lot of work across the aisle. I congratulate our colleagues in the Senate, as well, for the work that they have done. We have got to do a lot more. We have got to bring the cost of housing down, and we have got to increase the supply of housing. We are about 7 million units short here--7 million homes short in the United States.

This is a good start. It is a good start, and it is a collaboration between Republicans and Democrats on one of those elements of the American Dream that is undeniable and that is shared in red States as well as blue States.

Again, I congratulate all of my colleagues on working together on this. It shows you what we can do in this country when we work together. I look forward to the next iteration of this bill, as well.