Senate Proceeding on May 14th, 2009 :: 8:33:25 to 8:42:05
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8:33:18 to 8:33:39( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: quorum cal mr. pryor: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, i would ask that i could speak for 10 minutes as if it was morning the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, i

8:33:25 to 8:42:05( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Mark Pryor

8:33:40 to 8:34:01( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: rise today to offer my support for senator lincoln, my colleague from arkansas, senator lincoln's bill on usury. as some of you know -- not all, but some of you know that arkansas has very strict usury limit in its state

8:34:02 to 8:34:22( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: and it's been there for a long, long time. in fact, it used to be even more restrictive. back in the 1980's, the people went to the ballot box and they changed the constitution and made it much than it was originally but still very restrictive by national standards. but, mr. president, what's

8:34:23 to 8:34:43( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: happened nationally has changed things in arkansas and put arkansas at a disadvantage. and i know that there have been bills here, like the graham-leech-bliley financial modernization act in 1999. i know it was well-intendinged. i know there were good reasons to do it, good national reasons

8:34:44 to 8:35:04( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: and good financial reasons and, you know, a lot of good reasons to do that. however, what that act did is it preempted the arkansas state constitution by permitting in-state banks to charge the same rate of interest as the home state of any out-of-state bank that has a branch in that state.

8:35:05 to 8:35:28( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: it wasn't specifically designed, you know, for or against arkansas, but it was in the bill, it was in the law, it's been in law since 1999. and what that does effect, nationalized the usury rate for banks.

8:35:29 to 8:35:50( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: arkansas banks can now charge a higher interest could before graham-leach-b mr. president, when you look at the lending institutions that aren't banks. maybe the state student loan

8:35:51 to 8:36:14( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: authority, maybe captive finance companies, maybe other lenders that are not banks. what's happened is, it's worked a hardship and some of those lenders just can't in arkansas. they just can'tfford it. so many family-owned businesses like car dealers, furniture retailers,

8:36:15 to 8:36:35( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: they can't finance their goods to the arkansas consumer, if they can do it, have to go out somewhere, maybe to a bank or a credit union or some other lending institution, in many cases paying a pretty high interest rate in order to get the money to do this. this hurts the arkansas business community.

8:36:36 to 8:36:56( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: it hurts the arkansas economy. right now what's happened is, given the stimulus bill, there are many financing tools in the roads and schools, for building renewable energy projes, the build-america bonds, et cetera. but build-a

8:36:57 to 8:37:17( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: available in our state because of the lack of competiveness in the bond market. again, it is our interest rate. given these "financial times" that we're in, we find that we're put at a disadvantage. no one intended this. congress never intundz

8:37:18 to 8:37:39( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: the white house back in 1999 never wanted this to happen. but it's where we find ourselves today. the people of arkansas have once again decided to put this issue on the ballot, and they're going to do it. and it's been referred out to the people. the legislature made that decision. it's on the ballot. the problem november of 2010.

8:37:40 to 8:38:03( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: so we have a year and a half to try to struggle through this economy with this very difficult, very adverse usury limit in our state. what we're asking -- what senator lincoln and i are asking, given this amendment, is that we get temporary relief, only through november of 2010.

8:38:04 to 8:38:24( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: this is just fix, to give us some relief during this -- to get the credit flowing in our state, like it's been able to flow in states, to let us take advantage of the stimulus package, the america recovery act, that we've passed, that we're all benefiting from in certain ways, but let us,

8:38:25 to 8:38:48( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: arkansas, have the full benefit. the governor supports this. members of the legislature support this. they've asked us to do this for the people of the state of arkansas. to understand is what this amendment will do is it will permit the current interest rate

8:38:49 to 8:39:09( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: not to exceed -- once this is passed, the interest rate cannot exceed 17%. we're not talking about taking the usury rate completely out of our state law. we're talking about giving us some temporary relief up to 17%. and, again, when it comes to some of the financing vehicles

8:39:10 to 8:39:30( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: like student loans, bonds of various to letting investment happen in our state. there is precedent for this. congress enacted several years ago laws that preempted arkansas's usury -- like i mentioned before, for the banking industry and for some other businesses.

8:39:31 to 8:39:54( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: so we've done this before. and, again, i'm not sure laws just affected arkansas. they probably affected a lot of states. but, just like right now, arkansas is the only state left that needs some relf under the current situation that we find ourselves in. the way it works right now, just

8:39:55 to 8:40:15( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: state, the limit for usury for an interest rate in our state is 5.5%. 5.5% is a real local rate. it is an historically low raivment brate.our rates, those national rates.

8:40:16 to 8:40:36( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: again in a good economy, in most years that makes sense. but right now it doesn't. so what senator lincoln and i are respectfully asking colleagues to do is support her amendment, allow it to become law, allow arkansas this temporary relief, not just to benefit from the stimulus bill

8:40:37 to 8:40:57( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: that we've already passed but also to least find some very tight economy to ease some credit in our state, to help the recovery in our state as well as what we're hoping we find in every other state in the union. so, mr. president, wer with that, i

8:40:58 to 8:41:18( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: would ask that when we do vote on the lincoln amendment that we would all support i would help relief come to all 50 states, not just 49 and,again, this is temporary. it caps the interest rate at 17%, which by most standards is a very, very reasonable cap.

8:41:19 to 8:41:42( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: it's something that will allow the credit to flow in our state and will allow things like student build-america bonds program -- it'll allow those things to have the full effect that they need to have here in arkansa so, mr. president, with that, i'd yield the floor, want to thank my colleagues for their attention.

8:41:43 to 8:41:55( Edit History Discussion )

Mark Pryor: thank you. and i suggest the absence of a qu the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.