House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) rolled out a regulatory policy agenda that includes a warm embrace of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s (R-Texas) plan to replace the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, The Morning Consult reported yesterday. The latest installment of the House GOP’s “Better Way” agenda includes detailed plans to roll back the Obama administration’s hallmark financial regulation law. Hensarling wants to strip the federal government’s role in designating systemically important financial institutions and exempt those institutions from numerous regulatory requirements if they hold sufficient capital. Other priorities include getting rid of federal authority to infuse failing institutions with bankruptcy procedures. One of the plan’s unifying principles is that Congress should have a greater say in the financial regulatory sphere, including by subjecting rules to an up-or-down vote. The task force’s plan also suggests additional restrictions on several agencies and regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which would face a number of new restrictions under the Ryan plan. The plan posits “fundamentally reforming the CFPB” by installing an agency inspector general, removing its director position in favor of a five-member bipartisan commission and subjecting the agency to the congressional appropriations process. Currently, the CFPB’s funding comes from the Federal Reserve coffers, rather than congressional appropriations.
