Lisa Blunt Rochester’s first test & a DL Action Item
The Republicans want a big bipartisan vote on banking de-regulation to gauge how cowed Democrats are by the election results. If past results give any future guidance, I’d bet that they are very cowed indeed. Congressional Democrats do not require election results to be cowed. That is their natural state. A bright spot could be a “No” vote from Lisa Blunt Rochester, but I’m not holding my breath.
As early as Wednesday, the House will take up H.R. 6392, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act. This bill would lift mandatory Dodd-Frank regulatory supervision for all banks with more than $50 billion in assets, meaning those financial giants would no longer be subject to blanket requirements regarding capital and leverage, public disclosures and the production of “living wills” to map out how to unwind during a crisis….
You can see with this bill’s framework how financial regulation in the Trump era will be relaxed, not by outright repeal but through deliberate atrophy. Republicans want to replace any mandatory rules for regulation with discretionary ones. That way they can claim that they’re merely improving the system by putting the decisions in the hands of the experts instead of members of Congress.
We should probably all call LBR’s office and ask that she vote “no” on H.R. 6392. I know Carper will be calling her to urge a “yes” vote. Anybody have her number?
Now… when are new members sworn in? this may be a Carney vote, in which case, calls to his office would be pointless, because Carney’s picture is in the dictionary next to the word “cowed”
New members take their oath in January … unless Carney chooses to resign his seat before then in order to give his successor a jump start on accruing seniority.
New members aren’t sworn in until January
The “cowed” response will be “The congresswoman cannot comment on legislation she hasn’t read.” But she should have a clear position on Dodd-Frank and should be able to articulate it. I couldn’t find her position with a quick search.
Meanwhile she is already tweeting that she will #StandWithNancy (Pelosi). Not a good sign.
LBR takes office in Jan 2017. This is Carney’s vote, if he is even there, my guess is he is in Dover, and honestly transition to Governor is more important that 1 minority party vote in House.
Might be a good gauge of democrats who are returning to office next term, but that is about it.
I ACTUALLY called Carney’s office regarding this bill. Did anyone else call? The office is in turmoil as the movers are expected today to move all the office furniture. The young man who answered the phone “couldn’t speak on the congressman’s position on the bill so I asked him to speak to the congressman about a press release stating his vote, and the reason for it, after the vote is complete. Fat chance on that…