As pressure builds to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act, one lawmaker pushed back by formally requesting an analysis of the rulemaking effort and financial consequences under the financial legislative overhaul.
[IMAGE]""Sen. Tim Johnson"":http://johnson.senate.gov/public/ (D-South Dakota) wrote ""two letters"":http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Newsroom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=8a132c27-0eb1-c338-2d46-4626a5743305&Region_id=&Issue_id= to public officials Thursday to make the request, with clear intentions to secure a formal, objective analysis that lends credibility to the financial law and overall rulemaking process.
One letter obliged the ""Government Accountability Office"":http://www.gao.gov/ (GAO) to perform an impact analysis of the U.S. economy in the wake of the financial crisis, attending to factors like long-term unemployment, capital losses, and other setbacks for state, local, and national governments.
The other asked the ""Federal Housing Finance Agency"":http://www.fhfa.gov/ and ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (CFPB) to deliver reports about their rulemaking processes under Dodd-Frank.
[COLUMN_BREAK]""Repealing or undermining these Wall Street reforms, as some have proposed, would take us back to the same weak financial system that led to the worst economic crisis in generations and whose painful costs continue to devastate many Americans,"" he said in a statement.
He tallied up a list of predicted outcomes from any potential repeal, saying, ""Systemic risks would remain unsupervised. Consumers would have no focused watchdog looking out for them. Investors would be exposed to more Ponzi schemes. Reckless financial firms would undermine those who played by the rules. Taxpayers would be on the hook for more bailouts.""
One of the requests in particular will pledge the CFPB to undertake an analysis and explanation of such long-term programs as ""Know Before You Owe.""
The lawmaker specifically petitioned both the bureau and independent federal agency to present reports about any improvements in rulemaking processes under the ""Financial Stability Oversight Council"":http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/FSOC/Pages/default.aspx, and whether interagency coordination has undergone any facelift in the process.
""Efforts to repeal or undermine these new Wall Street reforms threaten the stability of our financial system at a time when we can least afford it,"" he added.
""These efforts to slow down Wall Street reform prevent responsible businesses, including community banks and credit unions, from having the certainty they deserve with finalized rules that fully honor Congressional intent behind the new law,"" Johnson said.