Legislative Activity

Is Dodd-Frank on the Chopping Block Next Congress?

With President-Elect Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, we believe there is a real possibility for a significant overhaul of financial services regulation in the 115th Congress – especially if future Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Mike Crapo (R-ID) is willing to work with committee Democrats to find middle ground. Though there had been discussion of potentially seeking to pass certain targeted reforms during the lame duck session (e.g., reforms dealing with Financial Stability Oversight Council, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, etc.), it now appears that Republicans will instead hold off on such efforts until 2017.

In the interim, and as the debate over Dodd-Frank continues to play out, financial regulators will work to finish implementing the 398 rulemakings required by the Act – at least until such time when (if) the Trump Administration freezes work on pending regulations, an idea that has been floated during the campaign. In fact, in his “Contract with the American Voter,” President- Elect Trump has gone further: he has promised to implement “a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.”

Patrick Kirby is co-author of this article.