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?
