Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is waging a war on her Republican and Democratic senators who are trying to roll back the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
A bipartisan group of senators is pushing Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo’s bill that aims to rework a number of the protective barriers Dodd-Frank put between consumers, banks and the greater economy in the wake of the 2007-2009 Great Recession.
Warren is already posturing to stop her colleagues’ efforts after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier in March that he planned to push the legislation through the upper chamber. Warren sent an email to her constituents Friday lambasting her colleagues for backing the bill, claiming they are selling out to industry lobbyists and bankers.
The Massachusetts senator started a hashtag Friday on Twitter–#BankLobbyistAct–to rally her supporters behind her effort to derail the rollback agenda.
The #BankLobbyistAct takes 25 of the 40 biggest banks in the country off the watch list for more federal oversight. It weakens consumer protections on mortgages – and makes it harder to fight racial discrimination in housing. https://t.co/69zXffiLFt
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2018
Are you having déjà vu yet? The #BankLobbyistAct doesn’t benefit anyone besides the big banks. It’s time for the rest of us to fight back and demand that Washington work for us, not the big bank lobbyists. https://t.co/ds2ryUBdhn
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2018
Today, 13 big banks wrote a sweet thank you note to the Republicans – and Democrats – who support the #BankLobbyistAct. These banks got $30B in bailouts just a few years ago, but they are still able to get Senators of both parties to do their bidding and roll back the rules. pic.twitter.com/M2bMtkoU7r
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 5, 2018
Before senators voted on a motion to proceed with Crapo’s bill, Warren held a press conference at the Capitol to lay out the perceived ills the legislation would bring on consumers, the potential danger it could bring on the economy and describe how Republicans and some of her Democratic colleagues are selling out to big banks.
WATCH:
Senator Elizabeth Warren answers questions about the #BankLobbyistAct https://t.co/h6zn2h31Dx
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 6, 2018
“If this bill passes,” she warned, large banks that brought about the housing crisis would be off the hook.
Despite her best efforts, 17 Democrats voted with Republicans Tuesday to move forward debating the rollback, which could pass the upper chamber as early as this week.
Warren called out Senate Democrats who voted for the bill Tuesday, pointing out that “this bill wouldn’t be on the path to becoming law without the support of these Democrats.”
Senate Republicans voted unanimously for the #BankLobbyistAct. But this bill wouldn’t be on the path to becoming law without the support of these Democrats. The Senate just voted to increase the chances your money will be used to bail out big banks again. https://t.co/bfkEgNdl9C
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 6, 2018
WATCH:
The senator went on MSNBC Wednesday morning and said she “would be all in” if the bill was actually going to help small, community banks.
“This bill offers a few changes for small banks. The price of that is to sock consumers in the nose and turn loose of banks between $50 billion and a quarter of a trillion dollars and to put in some special bonuses for the biggest banks in America. That makes no sense at all and that ultimately puts the American economy at risk–bad idea,” Warren said on MSNBC Wednesday.
Warren has expressed some willingness to work on revising Dodd-Frank. Specifically, the senator said in June 2017 that she would consider easing restrictions on small, community banks.
“There are places where we should do targeted changes in laws and regulations to make sure community banks don’t have to endure regulations,” Warren said in 2017 at the Wall Street Journal CFO Network Annual Meeting. The senator explained that it is likely unfair for community banks to endure heavy regulations imposed on large banks when they “don’t pose” the same kind of threat to the economy if they endure a crisis.
Warren did say she would not support rolling back regulations on Wall Street or dismantling the CFPB.
Crapo’s legislation would ease mortgage regulations on small and regional banks. The bipartisan group is also toying with the idea of easing liquidity reserve requirements for large banks, which were instituted after the Great Recession to ensure large lending institutions had enough capital on hand to help ease the burden of a financial crisis or episode.
The legislation also preserves provisions of Dodd-Frank that many Democrats claim are crucial to stopping banking malpractice. For example, requiring banks with over $100 billion to report “stress tests” to the Federal Reserve Bank, a measure intended to show that large banks, or systematically important financial institutions (SIFIs), could withstand a shock, like another financial crisis.
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