WASHINGTON – Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) told attendees of NAFCU's 2015 Congressional Caucus that community banks and credit unions need to set aside their longstanding disputes and instead focus on their common federal regulatory concerns.
In response to a question from a credit union executive about when Congress might take up the member business lending cap, Vitter (pictured) said credit unions should set aside that issue in light of the larger regulatory concerns they share with community banks.
Likewise, he said, he tells community bankers that they should set aside their abiding concerns about credit unions' federal tax exemption in favor of fighting regulatory burdens with credit unions.
"I want to avoid a circular firing squad," Vitter said, displaying an image where members who support a common cause shoot each other rather than a common enemy. "There are much bigger things to worry about."
During his presentation, Vitter also contrasted the U.S. financial system in the United States, which is filled with financial institutions of different sizes, with the financial systems in other countries, which, he said, are held up by a handful of mega banks.
"I'm concerned that if we don't tackle this problem of overregulation, we will eventually lose community banks, credit unions and community based financial institutions and become like those other countries," he said.
In response to another question, Vitter blamed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for her failure to pass regulatory relief legislation earlier this year. An executive in the audience had asked him what happened with the measure, since it appeared to have bipartisan support.
Vitter acknowledged that the measure had a degree of bipartisan report, but then said Warren had "started kicking up a fuss about it" and "scared the bejesus out her Democratic colleagues," therefore Democrats had abandoned the measure.
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