WASHINGTON, D. C. - Arguing that an Obama-era law meant to prevent Wall Street catastrophes has hobbled economic growth, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a proposal to replace the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

House Republicans want to help President Donald Trump make good on his promise to ditch the 2010 law adopted after a cascade of subprime mortgage defaults triggered a global financial crisis. Trump calls its regulations "horrendous," and says they've kept small firms from getting bank loans. Trump supports the House proposal.

"These regulations enshrine 'too big to fail' and encourage risky behavior," Trump said as he signed an April order instructing Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to review them.

Democratic Dodd-Frank backers, like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, say the House proposal would dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headed by former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and be a "massive giveaway to megabanks and payday lenders."

"We need to work together to improve the law, not turn the clock back to the days when Wall Street was free to prey on Ohioans, wreck the economy, and hand taxpayers the bill," says Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.

The Senate is not expected to embrace many parts of the House legislation. Brown and the committee's Republican chairman, Idaho's Mike Crapo, have said they'll work on a smaller plan that would focus on housing finance reform and relief for community banks.

The top Republican on the House of Representatives committee that oversees banking, Texan Jeb Hensarling, calls the repeal and replacement bill he drafted "The Financial CHOICE Act" -- which stands for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers, and Entrepreneurs.

He says the Dodd-Frank law reduced consumer access to credit cards and no-fee checking accounts, made it harder for community banks to issue residential mortgages, created too-big-to-fail banks, politicized lending, slowed economic growth and established the consumer protection bureau as a "rogue agency" that makes "up its own law in an unfair, deceptive, and abusive manner."

He said his bill would offer "economic opportunity for all and bank bailouts for none," end the "too big to fail" era and "replace Dodd-Frank's growth-strangling regulations on community banks and credit unions with reforms that expand access to capital so small businesses can create jobs and consumers have more choices and options when it comes to credit."

The top Democrat on his committee, California's Maxine Waters, has a different view. She says the proposal would "once again give Wall Street license to fleece all of us," and noted the CFPB has returned more than $11 billion to defrauded consumers. She said some financial institutions "simply don't like the fact that they have the Consumer Bureau setting them straight when they misbehave, or that they have to comply with sensible Wall Street Reform rules that prevent harm. But that's not a good reason to roll back these important protections."

The house is scheduled to debate Hensarling's legislation on Thursday. Here are some things his 580-page bill would do:

Rename and restrain the CFPB

Hensarling's bill would rename the consumer protection bureau the "Consumer Law Enforcement Agency," subject it to more congressional oversight, and have it be funded by Congress, instead of by the Federal Reserve. His proposal would also eliminate its authority to supervise financial institutions and take actions against entities for abusive practices. It would also become an Executive Branch agency with a director the president could remove at will.

Repeal Volcker Rule restrictions

A provision of the Dodd-Frank law known as the Volcker Rule keeps banks from making risky bets with their own money and owning big stakes in hedge funds. The measure championed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is meant to keep banks from taking gambles that could lead to a government bailout. Critics say it has set up another potential crisis by reducing the liquidity of financial markets.

Keep banks from being deemed too large to fail and end bailouts



Hensarling's bill would repeal the designation of particular firms as "systemically important financial institutions" that are deemed too big to fail. It would also create a new bankruptcy code chapter to handle the failure of large, complex financial institutions.

Exempt banks with high cash levels from Dodd-Frank rules

The legislation would exempt large banks with high cash levels from Dodd-Frank's liquidity requirements. Banks with assets of $50 billion or more would be required to undergo "stress tests" every two years instead of annually, as the current law requires.

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