Four years after passage, House keeps trying to kill Dodd-Frank
In 2013, Scott Talbott, then-chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, likened the signing of sweeping financial reforms under Dodd-Frank in 2010 to “halftime.”
Even now, on the fourth anniversary of President Obama’s signing of Dodd-Frank into law, bank lobbyists and a core group of lawmakers dubbed by the Center for Public Integrity in April as the “banking caucus,” have made it clear that there is still time left on the clock to undermine key provisions in the financial reform law.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, named by the Center’s April report as the captain of the banking caucus, offered what might serve as a pep talk on July 16.
“We can never, ever accept a Dodd-Frank world, nor should we,” he said at a conference organized by the Mercatus Center and the Cato Institute.
Related: Meet the Banking Caucus, Wall Street's secret weapon in Washington
Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and the 10 other members of Congress featured in the Center’s investigation, have done their best to derail Dodd-Frank.
At least 30 bills have been proposed to the House during the 113th Congress, aimed at chipping away at aspects of Dodd-Frank. Members of the banking caucus sponsored or cosponsored 20 of those laws. At least 16 have been referred to the House Financial Services Committee and three have been passed to the Senate.
Most measures will stall upon reaching the Senate Banking Committee, which supports Dodd-Frank.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by Dodd-Frank, is a favorite target for opponents of financial reform. Ten proposed laws over the past year have been aimed at disassembling some aspect of the CFPB.
Related: Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas
The bills range from the trivial to the systemic. The Bureau Research Transparency Act, for example, asks that the CFPB provide any studies or data when publishing a related research study, while the CFPB Data Collection Security Act would limit the bureau’s ability to collect and hold important data.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of After the Meltdown. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
