The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday he is determined to confine the Dodd-Frank Act to "the ash heap of history."
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, accused the financial regulatory reform law of being a drag on the economy.
“We want the animal spirt of the economy to flourish again,” he told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
While other congressional Republican leaders are targeting tax reform as the most important legislative priority, Hensarling contended regulatory reform belongs at the top of the agenda.
“For every one complaint I hear from an entrepreneur about taxes, I hear 10 about the regulatory burden,” Hensarling said.
Among the victims of the six-and-a-half-year-old regulatory reform law, said Hensarling, are community banks, which are “dying of the dreaded Dodd-Frank disease.”
He added that when fully implemented, the qualified mortgage rule brought about by Dodd-Frank will cut the number of blacks and Hispanics able to get home loans by about one-third.
Hensarling refused to say when he will introduce a version of last year’s Financial CHOICE Act for this session of Congress, but did say it will be coming soon. The bill will make sure every financial regulation passes a tough cost-benefit analysis, he said.