Look for House Republicans to demand answers from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this Thursday on steps the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has taken to cut down on overlapping regulations and streamline or eliminate existing regulations for the financial services industry, as promised, when Geithner testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to give the first annual FSOC report.
Thirty-four Republicans on the committee sent a letter to Geithner dated Sept. 8 asking for answers by Oct. 1st. The Secretary had yet to respond by Oct. 3rd, a spokesman from the Committee noted. Treasury did not yet return a phone call to National Underwriter by press-time.
"As concern mounts about the effect that regulatory overkill is having on economic growth and employment, we are writing to request that you provide the Committee with a report on what the [FSOC] is doing to identify and eliminate unnecessary or duplicative regulatory burdens," the letter stated.
"…we have seen no evidence in the year since Dodd-Frank was enacted of any efforts by the Administration to 'streamline and simplify' regulations," the letter stated, while pointing to the negative impact on small financial services institutions and on communities that the over-layering of regulations is creating.
Geinther had formerly stated he would take such streamlining steps in an Aug. 2, 2010 speech.
The committee is chaired by Chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-AL., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
FSOC is required under the Dodd-Frank to publish an annual report, which it did in July, and to report to Congress on the report. Since this was a mutually agreeable time reached in the months since the report was published, Geithner will be testifying not only before the House Oct. 6th, but before Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs earlier in the day.
