Dodd-Frank Reform Bill Clears Senate Banking Committee

A bipartisan bill aimed at loosening some Dodd-Frank banking regulations passed the Senate Banking Committee unchanged. The bill, proposed by Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R- ID), would increase the threshold at which banks are characterized as “systemically important financial institutions” and exempt smaller banks from stress tests. Crapo’s legislation has the support of nearly a dozen moderate Democrats and Independent Senator Angus King (I- ME), which should insulate it from a filibuster challenge on the full Senate floor.

At the committee level, Democrats Elizabeth Warren (D- MA) and Sherrod Brown ( D- OH) attempted to make changes to the bill. However, a coalition of Republicans and moderate Democrats nixed the proposed amendments.

One member of the coalition, Sen. Jon Tester (D- MT), said, “This bill is a product of months of bipartisan negotiation. The fact is it’s been years. We’ve been at this for five or six years negotiating on a bill — and this is the final product.”

Sen. Crapo’s bipartisan bill is a stark contrast in many ways to the language in the House’s Dodd-Frank overhaul, the Financial CHOICE Act. House Financial Services Chairman and proponent of the CHOICE Act, Jeb Hensarling (R- TX) has agreed to work with his fellow legislators in the Senate to reconcile the two bills going forward.