National Security · September 28, 2026

Andy Barr Leads Community Banking Hearing

Republican Leaders Staff

House Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr, R-Ky., led a field hearing in Richmond, Kentucky, on September 18, 2026, examining the role community banks play in financing Main Street businesses and households.

Eastern Kentucky University hosted the Financial Institutions Subcommittee hearing at its Center for the Arts. The discussion addressed federal regulatory pressures on smaller banks and the House-passed, bipartisan Main Street Capital Access Act.

Focus on Community Bank Regulation

Barr said community banks provide financing for farms, factories, family businesses, and people purchasing their first homes. He described those institutions as essential to local lending and economic activity.

“Community banks represent the financial backbone of this country,” Barr said.

According to Barr, federal regulators have imposed standards on community banks that were designed for large global institutions. He cited a $500 million community bank as an example of an institution being regulated as though it were a trillion-dollar financial firm.

Barr said those capital requirements and supervisory practices can raise costs, reduce lending, and drive consolidation among smaller banks.

Main Street Capital Access Act

The Main Street Capital Access Act would strengthen community banks through changes to federal banking oversight, Barr said. He stated that the legislation would base regulation more closely on risk rather than bank size, location, or political considerations.

“The Main Street Capital Access Act is about changing that,” Barr said.

Barr said the community bank package would provide greater transparency and predictability in the chartering process, while supporting the formation of new banks in rural and underserved communities. It would also revise capital, leverage, and enhanced prudential standards to better account for individual banks’ risk profiles.

The package would establish clearer rules, risk-based testing, and more transparent supervisory standards, according to Barr. The hearing placed the House-passed legislation within the broader debate over how federal regulators treat community institutions that serve local borrowers and businesses.