House Republicans move to repeal Dodd-Frank

The Dodd-Frank Act, meant to rein in corporate excesses, has been a failure, according to the House Financial Services Committee

The Dodd-Frank Act, meant to rein in corporate excesses, has been a failure, according to the House Financial Services Committee.

The committee released a report Monday that claimed Dodd-Frank didn’t end “too big to fail” but instead entrenched it as official government policy. The report came days before the fourth anniversary of the act being signed into law.

“In no way, shape or form does the Dodd-Frank Act end ‘too big to fail.’ Not even Timothy Geithner believed his talking points on that,” said committee chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), referring to the former Treasury secretary’s recent comment that “too big to fail” still exists. ““Instead, Dodd-Frank actually enshrines ‘too big to fail’ into law. Today, hardworking taxpayers are at greater risk of being forced to fund yet more Wall Street bailouts. Dodd-Frank officially designates an entire category of Wall Street firms as ‘too big to fail’ and then creates a taxpayer-financed bailout fund for their use.”

"Today’s report not only convincingly rebukes President Obama’s false promise that Dodd-Frank represented 'no more tax-funded bailouts – period,' but it also levels with the American people that widespread consensus confirms that Dodd-Frank has institutionalized ‘too big to fail’ at the peril of local communities and their access to capital,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Among the reports criticisms of Dodd-Frank are the claims that the act “leaves taxpayers exposed to the costs of resolving large, complex financial institutions,” and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still considered “too big to fail.”

Hensarling said that Republicans on the Financial Services Committee plan to introduce legislation “to repeal Dodd-Frank’s bailout fund and take other steps to end ‘too big to fail’ once and for all.”