Spending Bill ‘Poisoned’ by Financial Choice Act, House Dem Says

Waters pointed to the following provisions in the FSGG Appropriations bill, which she argued mimics the Choice Act and weakens Wall Street regulation by, in her words:

• Gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• Weakening financial stability safeguards, such as stress tests and living wills for the largest banks.
• Repealing merger and acquisition restrictions for megabanks, accelerating industry consolidation trends that will decrease the number of community banks and will allow the largest banks to grow without consideration for systemic risk.
• Repealing the Volcker Rule, which stops banks from gambling with taxpayer money.
• Subjecting federal financial regulatory agencies to the annual appropriations process.
• Repealing the Financial Stability Oversight Council's ability to designate nonbank financial firms, like AIG, as systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) for purposes of enhanced supervision and regulation.
• Abolishing the Office of Financial Research, which collects data and provides valuable research and analysis to help the FSOC identify and stop risks to U.S. financial stability.

Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, criticized the bill for underfunding the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saying it put "handcuffs on the Wall Street cops rather than the Wall Street predators."