In Texas, small businesses aren’t just part of the economy—they are the economy. From family farms in the Panhandle to tech startups in Austin, mom-and-pop shops in San Antonio, and oilfield services in the Permian Basin, small businesses form the backbone of the Lone Star State’s economic engine. They depend heavily on community banks to access the credit they need to grow, hire, and stay afloat. But today, that access is being choked off thanks to overreaching small business lending regulations.

Texans understand that local banks aren’t faceless institutions—they’re trusted partners. Yet under one federal mandate — Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act — community banks are forced to collect and report massive amounts of data on every small business loan application, all in the name of policing discrimination that hasn’t been proven to exist at any meaningful level. The cost of this compliance is staggering—especially for small, rural lenders.

I call Chappell Hill home and have grown very familiar with community banks and the vital role they play in a rural area.

The Dallas Federal Reserve has warned that the burden of Section 1071 could “limit the availability of small business credit in underserved and rural communities,” particularly hitting Texas hard, where over 60% of community banks serve rural areas. These are the institutions that understand their customers, take local context into account, and make personalized lending decisions for them.

In fact, the Dallas Business Journal reports that Texas community banks are increasingly seen as a lifeline for small businesses during uncertain economic times. Yet, the more these banks are treated like the big Wall Street players who caused the 2008 crash, the less they’re able to deliver for Main Street. It’s a case of Washington overreach penalizing the very institutions that did things right.

Representative Roger Williams (R-TX), the current Chair of the House Small Business Committee and a former small business owner himself, has introduced the 1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act—a smart, surgical fix that would scrap the rule and allow lenders to get back to what they do best: supporting local entrepreneurs. According to the Texas Bankers Association, the rule’s nearly 900 pages of regulations are “deeply out of touch” with how real-world lending actually works. The Independent Bankers Association of Texas also warned that it could “chill small business lending” at exactly the time when access to capital is most needed.

They are right, and the need to rescind this rule is urgent: over 90% of small business owners say access to credit is a problem, and more than 60% say they have difficulty getting the loans they need to grow. In Texas, where small businesses employ nearly half the private workforce, that’s a threat to the entire state’s economic health.

Section 1071 may have been designed with fairness in mind, but in practice, it amounts to a bureaucratic anchor dragging down local lenders and the communities they serve. Not every bank is a multinational giant—many are one-branch community banks working with their neighbors to make payroll or expand a shop.

Repealing this harmful section will free up capital, increase lending, and keep the Texas economy strong. Let’s stop pretending that treating a rural credit union like JPMorgan Chase is “equity.” It’s not. It’s nonsense.

Let’s stand with Texas small businesses. Let’s pass Rep. Williams’ bill to repeal Section 1071 and get Washington out of the way.

Chris Bell is a former congressman from Texas, Houston city councilman, and nominee for governor