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This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions legislation such as Advancing the Mentor-Protégé Program for Small Financial Institutions Act, members such as French Hill.
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May 12, 2026
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Download official House Record PDFReturn to issue contextADVANCING THE MENTOR-PROTEGE PROGRAM FOR SMALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
ACT
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3709) to amend the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 to establish a Financial Agent Mentor-Protege Program within the Department of the Treasury, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3709
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Advancing the Mentor-Protege
Program for Small Financial Institutions Act”.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF FINANCIAL AGENT MENTOR-PROTEGE
PROGRAM.
(a) In General.—Section 308 of the Financial Institutions
Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (12 U.S.C. 1463
note) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
“(d) Financial Agent Mentor-Protege Program.—
“(1) In general.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall
establish a program to be known as the `Financial Agent
Mentor-Protege Program' (in this subsection referred to as
the `Program') under which a financial agent designated by
the Secretary or a large financial institution may serve as a
mentor, under guidance or regulations prescribed by the
Secretary, to a small financial institution to allow such
small financial institution—
“(A) to be prepared to perform as a financial agent; or
“(B) to improve capacity to provide services to the
customers of the small financial institution.
“(2) Outreach.—The Secretary shall hold outreach events
to promote the participation of financial agents, large
financial institutions, and small financial institutions in
the Program at least once a year.
“(3) Exclusion.—The Secretary shall issue guidance or
regulations to establish a process under which a financial
agent, large financial institution, or small financial
institution may be excluded from participation in the
Program.
“(4) Report.—The Secretary shall report to Congress
information pertaining to the Program, including—
“(A) the number of financial agents, large financial
institutions, and small financial institutions participating
in such Program; and
“(B) the number of outreach events described in paragraph
(2) held during the year covered by such report.
“(5) Definitions.—In this subsection:
“(A) Financial agent.—The term `financial agent' means
any national banking association designated by the Secretary
of the Treasury to be employed as a financial agent of the
Government.
“(B) Large financial institution.—The term `large
financial institution' means any entity regulated by the
Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, or the National Credit Union Administration that
has total consolidated assets greater than or equal to
$50,000,000,000.
“(C) Rural depository institution.—The term `rural
depository institution' means a depository institution (as
defined in section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act)—
“(i) with total consolidated assets of less than
$10,000,000,000; and
“(ii) located in a rural area, as defined under section
1026.35(b)(2)(iv)(A) of title 12, Code of Federal
Regulations.
“(D) Small financial institution.—The term `small
financial institution' means—
“(i) any entity regulated by the Comptroller of the
Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or the
National Credit Union Administration that has total
consolidated assets lesser than or equal to $2,000,000,000;
“(ii) a minority depository institution; or
“(iii) a rural depository institution.”.
(b) Effective Date.—This Act and the amendments made by
this Act shall take effect 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas.
General Leave
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Arkansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
play a vital role in providing financial services to our families and our small businesses across our communities that often lack robust access to financial products and services, particularly outside our urban areas.
number of these vital smaller institutions threatening access to mortgages for American families and important capital access for small business development or agricultural loans for our family farmers.
smaller banks and credit unions remain viable by formally codifying the Financial Agent Mentor-Protege Program within the United States Department of the Treasury.
to strengthen partnerships between the Nation's largest banks and some of our smallest financial institutions across our land. This program pairs small and rural financial institutions with larger banks and credit unions, giving them access to resources, training, and technical assistance so that they can better serve their communities and better position themselves to qualify to serve as financial agents to the Treasury.
unions, and rural banks, expanding access to responsible financial services and ensuring that more small institutions have the capacity to partner with the Federal Government on crucial financial operations.
I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), for her leadership on this critical issue. I would encourage Members on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 3709, the Advancing the Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act sponsored by our colleague and former chair of our Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee, Representative Joyce Beatty.
and credit unions across the country, including our Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, and our Minority Depository Institutions, or MDIs.
Now, H.R. 3709 will enhance the Treasury Department's Mentor-Protege Program, which pairs larger banks with smaller ones so they have a mentor they can get advice and support from to grow and thrive.
bill
by voice vote in 2020 and several more times since. However, this time we are debating this bill as President Trump attacks community lending by trying to wipe out the CDFI fund.
Beatty's bill to continue our longstanding bipartisan tradition to support Minority Depository Institutions, or MDIs, alongside other community financial institutions like rural banks.
by Ranking Member Velazquez and myself, we had to set aside $60 billion for MDIs and CDFIs and other community financial institutions because the biggest banks were not providing Paycheck Protection Programs— remember, the PPP loans to the smallest businesses. MDIs and other community lenders are critical to getting those funds to small businesses quickly so they could keep their lights on during the pandemic.
$12 billion package of capital investments and grants for CDFIs and MDIs, and those funds continue to support $130 billion in lending to underserved communities all across America. But there is more that we can do, like encouraging more partnerships to benefit rural banks and MDIs, as Mrs. Beatty's bill does.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 3709, the Advancing Mentor-Protege Program for Small Financial Institutions Act, which supports small banks, credit unions by codifying the Financial Agent Mentor-Protege Program at the Department of the Treasury.
member, pairs up small rural financial institutions with large banks and credit unions providing resources, training, and technical assistance to help them better serve their communities and become financial agents to Treasury themselves.
chair and the ranking member, they include MDIs, Minority Depository Institutions. I am very proud to take this moment and personal privilege to say, like Adelphi Bank in my district in Columbus, Ohio, president and CEO, Jordan Miller, and the founder, Kevin Boyce, every day in this bank they are helping low-income, underserved constituents and the community at large.
best, and they provide essential financial services like mortgage credits, small business, and auto loans, investment banking and more. Mr. Speaker, these are all the things that we talk about in this very Chamber when we talk about working folks and jobs.
The chairman mentioned housing. Great point. But if you aren't financially able to do it, and if we could only have our larger banks participate in this program, which this legislation would do, it would help accomplish all of the things that we have heard today.
{time} 1540
Mr. Speaker, MDIs, small banks, and credit unions, and rural financial institutions generally have higher expenses and are often forced to merge with other institutions to survive.
Treasury will go a long way toward preserving and strengthening these institutions and ensuring that they can continue to survive and provide the critical banking services that the community needs.
Mr. Speaker, why should we do this? Who supports this? Those are great questions if you were asking that. I am proud that this bill, which has passed on suspension twice before, has the support of the Independent Community Bankers of America, or ICBA; the American Bankers Association, ABA; the America's Credit Unions, ACU; and the National Bankers Association, or NBA.
Mr. Speaker, I have been working on this bill for the entire congressional session because it is so important, and I am so proud that it is a bipartisan piece of legislation.
Let me also just share this: My bill has been endorsed by Ohio regional banks like Huntington Bank, which is headquartered in the capital city of the great State of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio; Fifth Third Bank, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio; and KeyBank, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, on this, I am sure we can all agree: Supporting small, mission-driven credit unions and community banks directly benefits American consumers and the economy overall.
Mr. Speaker, again, I thank Representative Beatty for her steadfast work on this important bill. This is one of the several bills today that I am glad we are considering to strengthen MDIs, CDFIs, community banks, and credit unions.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the CBO estimate for this bill.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Additional
Effect on Direct Information on Direct Link to Published
Bill Number Title Spending Effect on Revenues Spending and Revenue Estimates
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— H.R. 3709.......................... Advancing the Mentor- Increase by Less Than None................. N/A.................. N/A
Protege Program for $500K.
Small Financial
Institutions Act, as
amended. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Source: Congressional Budget Office.
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members on both sides of the aisle to support Congresswoman Beatty's good bill. It really helps so many of these small institutions that just don't have the capacity building to cope with some of the things that we have talked about on the House floor today in terms of the compliance burden and requirements they have to be successful.
have to have a peer network. They have to have expertise in some select areas to enhance their ability to serve not only the Department of the Treasury's needs but just to run a more successful financial institution and to be able to grow it and serve their communities.
support for and seen success with. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty) for urging that it be codified.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage Members on both sides to pass Mrs. Beatty's bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3709, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.