Senate Seeking Bipartisan Fixes to Dodd-Frank

As the Financial CHOICE Act 2.0 stalls in the Senate, a group of moderate Democrats are reaching across the aisle to bring smaller, but meaningful, changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, Obama-era legislation that placed considerable restraints on financial institutions following the mortgage crisis of 2008. The group is spearheaded by Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Joe Donnelly (IN), Jon Tester (MT), and Mark Warner (VA). Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R- ID) has expressed heavy interest in bipartisan banking reforms, recognizing the need for broad support of any legislation in the current political climate.

The changes being put forth by the Democratic coalition mirror a previous bill brought before the Senate Banking Committee in 2015. The amendments to Dodd-Frank would focus on reducing the compliance burden for many smaller and fiscally-responsible financial institutions by limiting bank stress tests and exempting smaller banks from expensive and burdensome oversight requirements. CHOICE Act 2.0, a comprehensive overhaul of nearly every provision of Dodd-Frank, passed the House along party lines earlier this year. With such sweeping legislation likely unpalatable to many Democrats, the process will now begin to see which parts of CHOICE Act 2.0 can be passed individually, including through unrelated bills on government spending.