Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) reintroduced legislation on Friday aimed at increasing transparency of an interagency board of federal financial regulators, The Hill reported today. Garrett, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said the legislation is needed to allow the public to see how the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) makes its decisions. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act created the FSOC, which regulates risk for the financial markets and is made up of the nine heads of the financial regulatory agencies. Republicans and the business community have chided the agency as reckless and non-transparent and as a rogue regulator with little oversight. Democrats and other critics of the bill argue that the legislation would politicize what was meant to be an independent body. Garrett's bill would increase the number of representatives at the meetings, allowing for the participation of all members of the regulators' boards and commissions to attend — not just the heads. It would also require that the agencies' respective boards and commissions vote on how each regulator would cast a ballot on FSOC decisions.
