Returning today from its August recess, Congress has roughly a month to act on three important banking bills.
With an Oct. 4 adjournment date looming, there's no time for drawn-out fights, so sponsors are trying to swing last-minute deals to generate bipartisan support.
"There is a very tight calendar," said Edward L. Yingling, chief lobbyist for the American Bankers Association. "Everything has to be worked out in a week to 10 days."
Even if deals are reached on these bills, Congress has more controversial items than it can handle, including an override vote on President Clinton's veto of the ban on late-term abortions, legislation barring same-sex marriages, and a bill limiting the deployment of U.S. troops under United Nations command.
Leading the list of banking-related bills is a compromise package to shore up the thrift insurance fund and give banks regulatory relief.
Securities reform legislation sponsored by Rep. Jack Fields, R-Tex., would free bank holding companies from overlapping state and federal securities laws. A third bill would reduce federal funding for guaranteed small-business loan programs.
Democrats have threatened to block the thrift fund rescue-regulatory relief bill if it weakens Community Reinvestment Act enforcement and consumer protection rules. And the industry will fight if regulatory relief provisions don't go far enough.
Mr. Yingling said he saw "a 50-50 chance" of working out a deal in time.
House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach is expected to offer a new bill this week. He defused one fight Tuesday by dropping controversial plans to create uninsured wholesale financial institutions and to let some banks expand in merchant banking.
The Senate Banking Committee also must wrap up its regulatory relief plan, which has been stalled for months over negotiations on fair credit reporting requirements.
Congress is expected to agree quickly on securities reform bills already approved by both chambers. Lawmakers are working to settle the bills' differences, and provisions that would help bank securities sales are expected to survive.
The House bill would exempt broker-dealers from most state reporting requirements and would loosen restrictions on lenders that extend credit for customers' securities purchases. The Senate plan exempts mutual funds from state registration rules.
Lawmakers must also pass an appropriations bill for the Small Business Administration, which runs guaranteed lending programs widely used by banks. As it did last year, Congress is expected to cut subsidies for the programs, forcing the agency to reduce the amount of new loans it guarantees. The House has already passed its SBA appropriation, and the Senate is to vote Sept. 12.
Current plans would cut the largest program from the $10.8 billion worth of new loans authorized for fiscal 1996 to less than $8.5 billion in fiscal 1997, said an SBA spokesman. The Senate may push to restore money for so- called "504 loans," which borrowers may use only to buy fixed assets. Funding for 504 loans was eliminated from the 1996 budget.
One piece of legislation has already fallen victim to the clogged schedule. Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., won't move forward this year on a bill to let banks pay interest on business checking accounts. A hearing on the bill had been tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, but the Federal Reserve and industry trade groups were not prepared to testify, said an aide to Rep. Metcalf.
