As the GOP prepares to seize control of the House in January, its members on the Financial Services Committee are vowing to reexamine the wide-ranging financial regulatory legislation passed earlier this year.

Among other things, the overhaul hammered out in the wake of the financial crisis establishes the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, creates oversight of the vast derivatives market and gives the government broad new authority to seize and wind down large, troubled financial firms.

"We're looking at it provision by provision," Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the incoming committee chairman, said in an interview.

President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law in July, and Republicans have consistently described it as a massive government overreach that will stymie businesses and economic growth. It was named for its primary sponsors, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.).

In particular, Bachus said Republicans want to revisit provisions that would require companies that use derivatives merely to hedge risks - such as an airline guarding against swings in fuel prices - to set aside more capital for those deals. Bachus said such "end users" did not contribute to the financial crisis and should not face the same restrictions as Wall Street firms that deal in more-risky forms of derivatives.

"Any attempt to require end users to come up with large amounts of capital . . . could certainly restrict their ability to hire and create jobs," he said. "And one of our pledges to America was that we didn't want anything in Dodd-Frank to be a job killer."

Bachus also has remained adamant that lawmakers take a second look at the new "resolution authority" granted by the bill, intended to allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take over and liquidate a large, failing firm in a way that doesn't leave taxpayers on the hook or cause widespread damage to the financial system. GOP members have insisted that the law, as written, could perpetuate government bailouts because it allows federal officials to pay off a company's creditors and assume a portion of its assets.

If a sizable firm were to fail, "you're talking about billions of dollars," Bachus said. "The first thing we need to do with the liquidation authority, and with many of these things, is just find out: What in the world do the regulators envision it empowers them to do?"

'They can't do anything'



Despite the eagerness within the GOP to roll back or repeal portions of the financial regulatory overhaul, Frank and his Democratic colleagues seem largely unconcerned that significant changes will become reality.

"They can't do anything legislatively. For one thing, the things they most dislike legislatively are some of the most popular things we've done," said Frank, referring specifically to the new consumer bureau, the derivatives legislation and the Volcker Rule, which limits banks from trading on their own accounts. "I can't imagine many of their people want to vote on those."

Even if any changes were to pass the House, Democrats still control a Senate that is as divided as ever.

"Republicans have a substantial-enough majority in the House to do whatever they want to do," said Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), a senior member on the Financial Services Committee and a supporter of the overhaul bill. But, he added, "whatever they send to the Senate is not going anywhere."