From: Thomas Warnke [mailto:ThomasWarnke@MSN.COM]
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 1:21 PM
To: Comments
Subject: Community Reinvestment -- RIN 3064-AC50

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to convey my strong opposition to this latest attempt to gut the Community Reinvestment Act of any real teeth in ensuring financial institutions do their part for poor urban and rural communities nationwide. The proposal to raise the "small bank" definition to banks with assets up to $1 billion will have a disproportionate impact on poor and especially rural communities.

The CRA has been the single most important regulation to ensure adequate resources are available for poor communities. In its close to 30 years, it has helped community groups implement breathtaking changes in communities that many had given up for lost. In low-income communities nationwide today, there is new life, new hope and new opportunity. The CRA played a critical role in bringing this renewal about. It is remarkably short-sighted, at best, to hamstring this regulation when its impact is now achieving true scale.

Again, I urge you not to implement this proposed change.

Thomas Warnke, President
CC Twenty-One, Inc.