Senate advances bill to ease bank safeguards
WASHINGTON» The Senate advanced legislation Tuesday to roll back some of the safeguards Congress put in place to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. Enough Democrats supported a procedural vote on the bipartisan bill to show it has a good chance of passage in the coming days.
The move to alter some key aspects of the Dodd-Frank law comes 10 years after the financial crisis rocked the nation’s economy. The bill has overwhelming Republican support and enough Democratic backing that it’s expected to gain the 60 votes necessary to clear the Senate. That was reflected in the 67-32 vote Tuesday, with 16 Democrats and one independent voting to move ahead with consideration of the bill.
Several Democratic lawmakers facing tough re-election races this year have broken ranks with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he was proud to support Dodd-Frank eight years ago, and for the most part, the legislation was successful, but the bill also had unintended consequences, which he said included consolidation in the banking industry and a decline in small business lending. He said local banks in Montana have suffered from regulations specifically designed to rein in risky behavior on Wall Street.
“As a result of complying with these regulations, many of our community bankers are hanging up their hats,” Tester said.
Nonpartisan congressional analysts say the legislation would increase the probability of a big bank failure slightly — prompting a possible taxpayer bailout — or another financial meltdown. The probability of those events is deemed to be small under current law. The new assessment by the Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would increase federal deficits by $671 million between 2018 and 2027 if it became law.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the drumbeat for derailing Dodd-Frank has been constant. He said Wall Street banks always want “a new exception or a new, weaker standard or a new tax break.”
“We know what happens next. It is hubris to think we can gut the rules on these banks again but avoid the next crisis,” said Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
But the bill’s proponents insisted it would bring a needed boost to beleaguered banks outside Wall Street that didn’t engage in the reckless practices that fueled the financial crisis.
“Dodd-Frank’s enormous regulatory burden has been inefficient and unhelpful for financial institutions of all sizes, but it has hit Main Street lenders especially hard,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
The legislation would raise the threshold at which banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements. Lawmakers are intent on easing those rules for midsize and large regional banks, asserting that would boost lending and the economy.
Banks have long complained about the cost of complying with the many requirements of Dodd-Frank. Under the Senate bill, some of the nation’s biggest banks would no longer have to undergo an annual stress test conducted by the Federal Reserve.