After nearly four hours of debate on Thursday, the House passed the Financial Choice Act, legislation designed to replace the Dodd-Frank Act, derail the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule and gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Democrats, who consistently referred to the legislation as the Wrong Choice Act during the heated debate on the House floor, offered no amendments to the bill, which passed by a 233-186 vote.
"Every promise of Dodd-Frank has been broken," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, after the vote, referring to letters he's received from Americans who were declined home, automobile and small business loans due to "Dodd-Frank's burdensome regulations."
Earlier in the day Republicans introduced separate legislation to overturn Labor's fiduciary rule.
The Choice Act, he said, "stands for economic growth for all, but bank bailouts for none. We will end bank bailouts once and for all. We will replace bailouts with bankruptcy. We will replace economic stagnation with a growing, healthy economy," Hensarling said.
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., who wrote the provision of the Choice Act that repeals Labor's fiduciary rule, said that the Choice Act also "repeals thousands of burdensome regulations that made it harder for families to qualify for a mortgage, obtain an auto loan, and access other forms of credit that they depend on every day."
House Democrats noted during the floor debate that the Choice Act is likely dead on arrival in the Senate.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking minority member on the House Financial Services Committee, said in her floor remarks that the Choice Act "is one of the worst bills I have seen in my time in Congress."
