The Blue Wave: Could It Sink Dodd-Frank Overhaul?

There’s a noticeable urgency these days as financial trade groups push Congress to enact any overhaul of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Here’s what the American Bankers Association says, in its plea to House Republican leaders to simply roll over and accept a Senate-passed bill: “Now, the House, whose members helped to provide a solid foundation for the bill, will have the opportunity to decide the fate of regulatory reform.”

Credit unions and their trade groups are sounding similar calls in appealing to the House to simply accept the Senate bill.

Now granted, all legislation that doesn’t pass this year expires at the end of the year and must go through the legislative process again next year.

But there’s a bigger fear in the financial services community (cue “Godzilla” movie music).

THE BLUE WAVE.

Don’t know what that is? Google it.

What you’ll discover is a theory that one or both Houses of Congress will go Democratic.

Think that’s just the raving of people who wear tinfoil hats to stop the CIA from listening in on the conversations they have with themselves?

Just look at the evidence.

Many polls have President Trump’s approval ratings hovering at about 42%.

Polls show that voters right now would prefer that Democrats take control of one or both Houses of Congress. Democrat Conor Lamb won a special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District following the resignation of Republican Rep. Tim Murphy.

GOP members of Congress are retiring like rats … even the Speaker of the House is going home.

You get the picture.

If – and it still is a big if – Democrats take back one or both Houses of Congress, advocates of a Dodd-Frank overhaul can kiss their legislation goodbye.

Remember, Dodd and Frank were both Democrats.

Granted, they’ve both retired from Congress. But Hill Democrats are no big fans of the House and Senate regulatory overhaul bills.

Now, let’s look at who would be likely to take over the committees overseeing Dodd-Frank. Keep in mind, these are subject to change because sometimes strange things happen and the folks we expect to become chairmen sometimes don’t.

Keeping that in mind, the House Financial Services Committee chair would likely be Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Waters is no big fan of the House or Senate bills.

“As I have said before, this bill repackages harmful provisions from Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s Wrong Choice Act and removes key consumer protections put in place following the financial crisis,” she said following the Senate passage of the bill. “It takes our financial system in the wrong direction and serves as a giveaway to banks that are already posting record profits.”

On the Senate side, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) would likely take over the Senate Banking Committee if he wins his current reelection campaign.

In his usual understated way, here’s what Brown had to say about the Senate bill, following floor passage: “This body once again sided with special interests and Wall Street instead of homeowners, students and working families. We missed an opportunity to pass meaningful bipartisan legislation that would help community banks and provide real protections for consumers.”

In his recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney was clear about the choices Republicans have. He said it would be nice if some House Republican proposals were added to the Senate bill.

If that’s not possible, he said the Senate bill was a good fallback proposal.

If advocates of any big overhaul of the Dodd-Frank Act want to see a bill enacted anytime in the near future, they had better hurry up.

Or, they might just find themselves drowning under a Big Blue Wave.

News You Can Use

The Congressional Research Service does some great research. Members of Congress can request that the arm of the Library of Congress prepare a report on a myriad of topics.

Dodd-Frank. Credit unions. The declining use of public transportation in the U.S.

You’ll even find CRS reports cited in CU Times.

But with the exception of a bibliography the CRS issues each year on the annual high school and college debate topics, most CRS reports are not officially made public.

Instead, various research organizations have used underground methods to obtain CRS reports and have posted them on the internet. For instance, the Federation of American Scientists operate a website called “Secrecy News.” The federation posts CRS reports it obtains on the site.

Some organizations even sell the CRS reports they obtain.

And any member of Congress, staffer or intern is free to give anyone a report as long as it is not confidential.

But this research black market took a hit in the recent Omnibus appropriations bill.

Buried in that legislation is a requirement that all CRS reports be made public on a Government Publishing Office website.

Advocates of open government and libraries have been fighting the battle for more than 20 years. In 2015, former CRS employees with a total of more than 500 years of service signed a letter to congressional leaders asking that the reports be made public.

So, now they will be.

And soon, you too will be able to read, “Bee Health: The Role of Pesticides.”

Or not.

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at dbaumann@cutimes.com.