0
0
In June, House Financial Services Committee Chair, Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), introduced legislation to roll back Dodd-Frank. This legislation, H.R. 5983, is known as the Financial CHOICE Act (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers, and Entrepreneurs). Cute.
Do they have people in Washington whose sole responsibility is to come up with these little ditties as acronyms for legislation? I wonder. If so, couldn’t they come up with a better one for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (DFWSRCM)? That doesn’t roll off the tongue so well. I guess that’s why they just refer to it as Dodd-Frank. Maybe it should be dubbed the CONTROL Act (Creating Oversight Needed To Restrict and Overregulate Lending).
The Republicans push forth the bill as an opportunity to promote “growth for all, bailouts for none”. The Democrats, disagree, calling it the “Wrong CHOICE Act”. An obvious disagreement.
This legislation once again demonstrates what’s wrong in Washington, DC. When introduced into the Committee, the vote went strictly along party lines; R’s a yes, D’s a No. Interestingly, in doing so, the Democrats refused to compromise their positions offering no alternatives for a markup.
Whether you agree with the reforms or not there should be some room for discussion and compromise. Now that we’ve labored under the Dodd-Frank rule for 6 years, we should have learned where these rules can be modified and improved to continue to protect consumers while allowing the financial community to provide them the services they need, without undue hardship and unnecessary additional expense and risks.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Unfortunately, it seems there is no will to compromise on anything anymore in Washington, DC. The projection is that the CHOICE Act has a good chance of passing the House, but if so, it will face an uphill battle in the Senate.
If by chance it does pass the Senate, President Obama has vowed to veto the Bill, as Dodd-Frank is viewed as one of his Administration’s greatest triumphs. I guess that’s more important than what’s best for the nation as a whole.
If you agree or disagree with the reforms proposed in the CHOICE Act you should make your voice heard by contacting your representatives in the House and the Senate. That’s the democratic process. After all these people were elected to represent us, not to dictate to us what we need to do.
Here’s a link to an executive summary of the proposed bill: (CHOICE)
