Proposed Budget Resolution Includes Changes to Dodd-Frank

The newly proposed federal budget bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018 (House Concurrent Resolution 71) contains a number of provisions that could reshape key sections of the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposed budget is part of a larger 10 year plan to balance the federal budget by cutting financial industry rules and domestic welfare spending. The budget lends support to many of the key proposals in the Financial CHOICE Act, including bringing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, therein renamed the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency, under Congressional appropriations and limiting the agency to the enforcement of enumerated consumer protection laws.

With a loaded schedule focused on tax reform, healthcare, and Russia, Congress has had little time lately to hammer out a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins in October. Tax reforms and federal spending cuts could be driving a wedge into the Republican majority in Congress, increasing the chances that the federal government could again experience a shutdown like the one in 2013. The Senate’s inability to repeal the Affordable Care Act last week will add uncertainty to tax reform. It will likely be September before Congress continues the process to fund federal operations for one more year.