R Street commends passage of H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017
WASHINGTON (June 8, 2017) – The R Street Institute praises today’s vote by the U.S. House to pass the Financial CHOICE Act, legislation that begins to unwind the Dodd-Frank Act’s overly complicated and burdensome response to the financial crisis of 2008.
The bill’s most important provision would allow banks the sensible choice to maintain substantial equity capital in exchange for a reduction in onerous and intrusive regulation. This crucial provision provides banks a reasonable and fundamental trade-off: more capital, less intrusive regulation.
“The CHOICE Act allows Congress to clarify that regulatory agencies derive their powers from the legislative branch,” said R Street Outreach Manager Clark Packard. “The most important power of the legislature is the power of the purse. Finally, we have all financial regulatory agencies under the democratic discipline of the congressional appropriations process.”
Likewise, the CHOICE Act incorporates the Fed Oversight Reform and Modernization Act, which improves governance of the Federal Reserve by Congress. Under the new legislation, such reviews will happen quarterly and will force the Fed to quantify and discuss the effects of its monetary policies on savings and savers. Finally, other major provisions of the CHOICE Act provide relief for community banks, which have suffered as a result of heavy paperwork and compliance burdens under Dodd-Frank.
“I’m pleased the House has passed the CHOICE Act,” said Alex Pollock, R Street’s distinguished senior fellow. “This is a big step forward in the necessary reform of Dodd-Frank’s onerous efflorescence of regulatory bureaucracy. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to take up financial reform. I hope they will do so quickly.”
The 115th Congress now has the ability to craft a new, more sensible financial services regulatory framework. R Street encourages all House members to send a message to their Senate counterparts that they should move quickly on financial reform.
