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House Republicans released their updated bill to replace former President Barack Obama's financial reform law Wednesday and set a hearing on the sweeping legislative package for next Wednesday, the <em>Washington Examiner</em> reported today. The new text for the bill, the Financial Choice Act of 2017, weighed in at 593 pages, far fewer than the 2010 law it is meant to supplant but longer than last year's version. The main premise of the bill is to cut back the rules imposed by the Dodd-Frank law. And for banks that opt to maintain a high level of capital, which would reduce the odds of bank failures and increase market discipline, the bill would provide for relief from several layers of regulation. Perhaps most notably, the legislation would reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees financial products such as mortgages and credit cards, by scaling back its authority and ensuring that the president can fire its director at will. Last year's version took a different tack, making the bureau a five-member, bipartisan commission.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) yesterday unveiled changes to his proposal to roll back Obama-era financial rules, promising regulatory relief for banks if they hold enough capital and provisions aimed at spurring more companies to go public, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The summary of proposed legislation from Hensarling shows that the bill could ease a number of heightened regulatory standards enacted through the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law. Hensarling’s legislation, known as the Financial Choice Act, would curtail certain powers of federal financial agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to add a new section to the bankruptcy code just for banks, a measure meant to allow banks to fail without needing taxpayer bailouts or setting off a crisis, the Washington Examiner reported yesterday. The lower chamber passed the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act of 2017 on a voice vote, a week after the bill cleared the Judiciary Committee also on a voice vote. Speaking on the House floor Wednesday, committee chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said that the legislation "will better equip our bankruptcy laws to resolve failing firms, while also encouraging greater private counter-party diligence in order to reduce the likelihood of another financial crisis." The bill would set out a specific set of rules to help authorities sort out which creditors are owed in the event of a bank bankruptcy, in an effort to reduce the panic and uncertainty that can accompany these events. The House has passed the legislation in previous Congresses, but the Senate has not acted on it.

The House won’t vote until this summer at the earliest on changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law, a senior Republican said yesterday, demonstrating how the path for regulatory relief remains in flux as lawmakers grapple with health care policy, a tax overhaul and other issues, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said financial regulatory policy could make it to the House floor “when it is warm out…perhaps June, July would be my hope.” When Republicans do move toward voting on a financial regulatory bill, there is “no question” the House can “pass a major change to financial services law,” McHenry said. “What the Senate can do from there is an open question,” he added, nodding to the fact major Dodd-Frank changes might face opposition from Senate Democrats.