President Trump yesterday reiterated his intention to roll back Dodd-Frank financial regulations enacted to prevent another financial crisis, telling reporters that he soon planned to do “a big number” on the 2010 law, the New York Times reported today. During the 2016 campaign, Trump had pledged to “dismantle” Dodd-Frank, passed when Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, without specifying the actions he planned to take. Trump’s pick for secretary of the Treasury, Stephen T. Mnuchin, a hedge fund manager, also has promised to “kill” parts of the law, including the so-called Volcker rule restricting banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments of the kind that led to the 2008-9 global economic crisis. “Dodd-Frank is a disaster,” the president said during a 10-minute session with reporters as he signed an executive order slashing government regulations. Read more.
In related news, a new executive order that requires executive agencies to find at least two existing regulations to rescind for every new rule does not extend to independent agencies, according to the White House, MorningConsult.com reported. “All independent agencies are not covered by the EO,” Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said in response to the question of whether the order applies to independent agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. President Donald Trump signed the order yesterday requiring all executive departments or agencies to “identify” what existing regulations can be repealed. Agencies covered by the action also must ensure that regulations issued for the rest of this fiscal year, offset by rescinded regulations, have a net cost of zero dollars. Read more.
