[1]Representative Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) said he will be exploring a change in strategy in order to get some regulatory relief passed, after a bill that would address 12 separate fixes to the Dodd-Frank Act was thwarted by the Senate. Fitzpatrick, a member of the House Financial Services Committee [2], has introduced a bill that would give banks an additional two years to dispose of collateralized loan obligations as required by the Volcker Rule, on two separate occasions, according to a report.
In January, the house passed the bill [3] by a vote of 271 to 154, with 29 Democrats voting in favor of it. However, Senate Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) vowed to fight the bill and it failed to pass. Democrats, including Warren, have said they worry that bills that claim to be aimed at relieving regulatory burdens for small banks are being used to roll back Dodd-Frank for the benefit of the largest financial institutions.
Fitzpatrick noted Tuesday that each of the individual bills included in his legislation, the “Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burden Act,” had bipartisan support when they either passed the full House or his committee. But when packaged together, they have drawn the ire of more liberal Democrats.
“These are the bipartisan ideas,” Fitzpatrick said following an appearance in New York. “You package them together and put them on the floor. Then [Senator Elizabeth Warren] comes out against one of the 12, and all of a sudden we lose all our support.”
The Pennsylvania Republican said that he may have to consider a new approach to getting some regulatory relief done, including possibly lifting the asset threshold, that banks used to be determined systemically important financial institutions, from the $50 billion where it currently stands and providing regulatory relief for small banks.