Sen. Cruz Applauds Administration for Finalizing a Rule to Ensure Creditworthy Institutions Have Equal Access to Financial Services

Yesterday, I issued the following statement applauding the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for finalizing a rule that would require large banks to provide fair access to financial services for all legal and creditworthy institutions:

This rule is a victory for America’s blue-collar energy workers and producers who have struggled to keep their oil wells running amid the pandemic. This is also a victory for gun manufacturers and private prisons who have been arbitrarily denied access to capital. I have long said that partisan interests and political divisions should not deter a legal, creditworthy institution from acquiring fair access to financial services, and I applaud Acting Comptroller Brooks for finalizing a rule that ensures all sectors of the economy have fair access to capital.

BACKGROUND

Throughout my time in the Senate, I have fought to defend American individuals’ and businesses’ access to capital.

Specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic, I havee been leading advocate for American energy producers’ critical access to capital. Last year, I:

• Praised the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last year for initially issuing this rule requiring banks to provide fair access to financial services for all legal and creditworthy institutions.
• Advocated for small and medium-sized energy producers’ critical access to capital in a meeting with President Trump, members of Congress, and business leaders.
  • After the meeting, President Trump directed Energy Secretary and native Texan Dan Brouillette to work with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to make sure small and independent energy producers have access to emergency relief loans.
• Sent a letter to Secretary Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell urging them to keep the financial assistance authorized by CARES Act industry neutral and free of bias.
• Sent a letter to Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Brouillette, and Chairman Powell urging them to make credit facilities accessible to domestic energy producers.
• Sent a letter urging Secretary Mnuchin and Chairman Powell to ensure America’s small and independent oil and gas producers have critical access to capital to keep their wells operational, their doors open, and their employees on payroll.
  • Shortly thereafter, the Federal Reserve expanded the scope of its lending facility for small and medium-sized producers.
• Sent a letter along with his colleagues to President Trump urging him to prevent Wall Street banks that have already benefitted immensely through government-backed loan programs, from discriminating against America’s energy producers.

In April 2020 Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and I along with a group of 16 of our colleagues sent a letter urging Secretary Mnuchin, Chairman Powell, and Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza to protect Second Amendment-related industries from discrimination by financial institutions.

In February 2020, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Cramer, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and I introduced the Financial Defense of Industrial Contractors (FDIC) Act, which would combat political discrimination by some of the largest banks operating in the United States against federal contractors, including those which operate facilities on behalf of the Immigration Customs and Enforcement Agency (ICE). 

In December 2019, Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and I along with our colleagues reintroduced the Financial Institution Customer Protection Act, legislation prohibiting federal regulators from arbitrarily forcing banking institutions to terminate their relationships with legal businesses solely because the operations of the businesses are not in line with the views of the contemporaneous administration.

In May 2018, I sent a letter to the CEOs of Citigroup and Bank of America after the companies attempted to limit business with those who exercise their lawful rights under the Second Amendment and to restrict their customers’ lawful gun purchases and gun sales beyond what federal and state laws require.