Wall Street

Financial Regulatory Bill

05/23/2018

The House of Representatives yesterday afternoon voted to pass S. 2155, a bill previously passed by the Senate to make certain changes to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. President Trump is expected to sign this bill. This possibly concludes an effort begun earlier this year originating with HR 10, which proponents call the “CHOICE Act.” You may recall that NTEU reported that this bill should be called the “Wrong Choice Act” because of the harm it would cause employees at financial regulatory agencies as well as consumers and depositors. 

As originally reported out by the House Financial Services Committee, HR 10 would all but abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as put all of the banking regulatory agencies under the appropriations process, subject all their employees to the Holman Rule, and it could cause the closing of several SEC field offices. NTEU strongly opposed this bill when it went to the House floor. We were successful in winning an amendment to delete the provision placing the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) under the appropriations process. However, the bill passed the House over NTEU’s objections. 

A number of moderate Senators indicated that they wished to pass a revised version of the House bill. NTEU worked closely with each of them, as well as with other Senate allies, to keep out all of the anti-employee provisions from HR 10 and any new provisions that would be harmful to our members. The union is pleased to report to you that it was successful on all counts (except for one provision to require NCUA to hold an annual public hearing on its budget). Except for this one provision, earlier Senate passage of the bill without any other anti-employee provisions was a great victory for NTEU. Yesterday’s House vote passing the Senate-passed legislation completes congressional action on this bill, which will now head to the President for his signature.