DODD DUMP IS ON

House moves to erase Wall St. regs

The House on Thursday passed a bill that obliterates part of former President Obama’s biggest Wall Street reform bill.

The new bill, the Financial Choice Act, moves to erase many of the stringent regulations enacted under the postrecession Dodd-Frank reforms — including putting into jeopardy the very existence of a watchdog agency that has been a thorn in the side of some of the biggest US banks.

Dodd-Frank is a series of regulations aimed at putting the brakes on certain types of risky trading. It created a council specifically to monitor “too big to fail” institutions and created an agency to police consumer financial products.

The bill, the brainchild of Rep. Jeb Hens ar ling( R-Texas ), would allow the president to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with or without cause. It also would let Congress cut off all funding for the agency and severely cut back its powers.

The Republicans have long had the CFPB in their crosshairs — ever since Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), then a college professor, devised the concept for the agency.

The new bill passed with no support from Democrats and only one dissenting Republican.

“We will make sure there is needed regulatory relief for our small banks and credit unions,” Hensarling said on the House floor.

The bill, however, isn’t likely to pass the Senate as rules in that chamber would require the cooperation of Democrats for its approval.

But the fact that the House passed any bill in line with President Trump’s deregula- tory agenda shows there could be momentum for both houses to pass a bill.

The CFPB, led by Richard Cordray, largely regulates retail banking products. It came into prominence last year, when it and two other agencies settled with Wells Fargo for $185 million over the bank’s millions of sham accounts and cards — a scandal that led to the CEO’s exit.

The CFPB would also go by a new name— the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency.

“Dems remember the 2008 crash,” Warren tweeted on Tuesday, ahead of the expected vote. “We remember the millions who lost their jobs, homes& life savings because of Wall Street’ s reckless greed.”