House GOP Highlights Dodd-Frank Failures

Congressional Republicans, on the four-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, fired out at the controversial legislation, saying that the act's purported purpose to end the government's "too big to fail" policy has itself failed.

On Monday, the House Financial Services Committee released a 100-page report titled "Failing to End 'Too Big to Fail:' An Assessment of the Dodd-Frank Act Four Years Later," which asserts that the act perpetuates a dangerous policy of bailing out lenders that fleece American taxpayers, under the presumption that not bailing them out would make matters far worse. GOP leaders say that Dodd-Frank was supposed to put an end to this perspective, but instead makes sure it continues.

"In no way, shape or form does the Dodd-Frank Act end 'too big to fail,'" said Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), chairman of the committee. "Instead, Dodd-Frank actually enshrines 'too big to fail' into law."

The report calls the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), created to manage the administration of Dodd-Frank, "unwieldy," and states that the FSOC has failed to live up to its statutory mission to identify and mitigate systemic risk. The report also says that while the Office of Financial Research has made some progress in its mission to collect financial data to identify systemic risks, its progress has been hampered by poor data collection efforts that risk "imposing substantial costs in return for speculative benefits."

More to the point of its title, the report asserts that proponents of Dodd-Frank have never offered an adequate, concrete explanation of how the orderly liquidation authority ‒‒ which provides a process to quickly and efficiently liquidate a large, complex financial company that is close to failing ‒‒ would actually end bailouts. The FDIC's strategy for implementing "single point of entry" provisions outlined in Title II of Dodd-Frank is, according to Republicans "a recipe for future AIG-style bailouts."

"Contrary to the claims of its proponents, Dodd-Frank leaves taxpayers exposed to the costs of resolving large, complex financial institutions," the report states. Hensarling says that Dodd-Frank “misses some obvious problems and creates new ones," especially where government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are concerned. "Firms designated as 'financial market utilities' under Dodd-Frank," the report states, "are the next generation of GSEs."

Moreover, Republicans charge, regulatory requirements imposed under Dodd-Frank create compliance burdens that distort the free market by making it harder for small-to-medium-sized financial institutions to compete with larger firms, further entrenching "too big to fail."

While Republicans on the Financial Services Committee plan to introduce legislation "to repeal Dodd-Frank's bailout fund and take other steps to end 'too big to fail' once and for all," according to Hensarling, the act’s latter architect, Barney Frank, former Massachusetts Representative and FSC chairman, will testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday to assess the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act four years later.

Republicans are doubtlessly less than enthusiastic about what Frank may have to say and make no effort to hide their distaste for what they consider a cumbersome piece of legislation. "Rather than institute market discipline and a clear rules-based regime, four years later," said Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry, "Dodd-Frank's failed policies have only worsened the risks within the financial system and recklessly handed financial regulators a blank check for taxpayer-funded bailouts."