President Trump signed bipartisan legislation to revamp parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and primarily ease burdens on small and regional banks Thursday, in a White House event that was overshadowed by his decision to cancel a planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“It doesn’t seem so important now,” Trump said of the bill, after a brief statement on North Korea. “But it is important, it’s incredible.”
The legislation is a legislative triumph for regional banks such as BB&T, SunTrust, and Keycorp, as well as for smaller banks and credit unions.
“The legislation I’m signing today rolls back crippling Dodd-Frank regulations that are crushing community banks and credit unions nationwide,” Trump later added.
Assembled by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, with Democratic co-sponsors, the bill was carefully negotiated to reach Trump’s desk.
It’s not the repeal or replacement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that conservative Republicans hoped for. Rather, it’s a smaller legislative victory that Trump can claim and that moderate Democrats running for re-election in red states also can tout.
Despite the bill’s modesty, liberal Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, derided it as a giveaway to Wall Street and warned that it would increase the risks of another financial crisis.
In the end, though, 17 Senate Democrats voted for the bill. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, running for re-election in North Dakota, was the only one present at the White House signing.
It’s possible that Congress could pass a second financial regulatory relief bill this year. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was promised a second vote on further bipartisan bills in the Senate in return for the House voting to approve the Crapo bill without changes.
But the main action now will take place in the regulatory agencies.
Trump-appointed regulators have moved to rewrite some key Obama-era regulations. Next week, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to propose changes to one of the biggest — the Volcker Rule, which is meant to prohibit banks from speculative trades.
Trump’s team is also expected to be rounded out Thursday with the final vote on the confirmation of Jelena McWilliams to be the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
