State Sen. Jack Murphy of Cumming has been invited as a panelist to discuss the Dodd-Frank Act and its impact on federal and state law’s relationship with national banking institutions.

The panel discussion is scheduled for Thursday, the first day of a two-day conference in Orlando, Fla., sponsored by the American Conference Institute.

The event is the 12th National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions and Litigation, according a news release.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is federal legislation signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010.

In part, it says that states are closer to the areas where banking abuses occur, therefore state law rather than federal law should take precedence when investigating banks.

Murphy, a Republican who represents District 27, serves as chairman of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.

According to the release, Murphy disagrees with Dodd-Frank and says national banks operate over state lines and clearly should be regulated by federal law.

"Although, in most cases, I would agree that states’ decisions should be considered before federal decisions, interstate banking is a big exception," he said.

"I agree with the [Office of the Comptroller of Currency] that says national banks are not subject to state laws when those laws obstruct the abilities of banks to do their business."

The OCC is a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury that supervises national banks.

Murphy said the Dodd-Frank Act is unconstitutional and likely will be overturned or repealed.

"When the banking crisis hit, the federal government began to look for scapegoats," he said. "Although I don’t want to see the rapid, no-holds-barred banking expansion that we saw in the 1990s, over-regulation is not the answer."

To Murphy, rebounding from this recession "will not come from stifling banks’ activities."

"Banks do not want to close their doors. They do not want to fail," he said. "We must trust the free market — and trust the regulations that were ignored in the 1990s and 2000s — to regain our financial strength.

"New regulations will only slow the process, as we are seeing by the lack of loans currently on the market."