The House Financial Services Committee advanced 15 regulatory reform bills to the full House during a two-day markup on Wednesday and Thursday.
One reverses portions of the 2014 Securities and Exchange Commission rule on money market funds; another would help federal courts curb abusive mutual fund litigation; and a third would exempt those engaged in the business of insurance from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said the bills the committee passed were designed to lift regulatory burdens.
"Even as tax reform is massively boosting our economy, regrettably excessive regulation will continue to clog the arteries and prevent the free flow of capital that is the lifeblood of economic growth," Hensarling said.
Congress, he continued, "must do more to reduce the burdensome and often unnecessary red tape that prevents companies from growing and creating more and better jobs and those regulatory burdens that hinder Main Street financial institutions from serving their customers."
Some of the 15 bills, which advanced to the full House, include measures that were included in Hensarling's Financial Choice Act, which was designed to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act. The Act passed the House but is seen as having little chance at getting through the Senate.
The Mutual Fund Litigation Reform Act, H.R. 4738, which passed by a 31-25 vote, amends section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act to provide that in derivative actions brought under the Act alleging a breach of fiduciary duty, the plaintiff must state with particularity all the facts establishing a breach of fiduciary duty and that the plaintiff must prove the breach of fiduciary duty to be clear and convincing evidence.
