Dodd-Frank is attracting heat-seeking missiles from two key Republican outposts in Washington.
For months, Paul Ryan the House speaker, has made gutting the financial reform law part of his “Better Way.” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services is known for hating the law.
A few blocks away at the White House, President Donald Trump vowed Monday to do a “big number” on Dodd-Frank, enacted more than six years ago to curb the financial industry excesses that many claimed led to the recession.
But a third Republican power center, the Senate, is missing the zeal. Asked Wednesday if he would push anti-Dodd-Frank measures sent to his committee from the House, Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, new chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs unemotionally replied, “Got to see what they send.”
On Thursday, the lead Democrat on the commitee, Ohioan Sherrod Brown, a major Dodd-Frank supporter, said he didn’t know if the committee would weaken Dodd-Frank but praised the cooperation and congeniality he was receiving from Crapo.
“His staff is talking to my staff,” said Brown.
He predicted Crapo would run the committee “measurably better” than Richard Shelby, who immediately preceded Crapo as chair.
In the two years that the 82-year-old Shelby ran the committee, it was basically dormant.
One of Brown’s criticisms of his Senate colleague is that it had been a long time since the then-chair had held a hearing on housing finance.
Ever since Dodd-Frank was passed, the Senate has refused to pass the dozens of full and partial repeal bills that have made it out of the House.