Capital Briefs: Leach Battling Clinton On Plan for New Fees

House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach wants congressional budget negotiators to kill President Clinton's plan to impose new fees on bank holding companies and state-chartered banks.

"The imposition of bank fees symbolizes the liberal notion that deficits can best be reduced through raising taxes rather than cutting spending," he said in a Dec. 11 letter to Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Budget Committee.

In budget recommendations last week, President Clinton urged that state- chartered banks pay examination fees to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and bank holding companies pay inspection fees to the Federal Reserve. The President tried in vain to include similar fees in previous budgets.

The fees would increase the cost of credit and do nothing to reduce the deficit, Rep. Leach wrote.

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