The top congressional Democrat on finance issues warned bankers Tuesday that Congress’ work is threatened by claims from President Trump that are not based in reality.
“We can’t run our economy based on conspiracy theories,” Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said at a major event hosted by the American Bankers Association in Washington.
Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, was referring to Trump’s statements and tweets casting doubt on the legitimacy of government statistics and the Federal Reserve, among others.
The Democratic senator portrayed Trump’s statements as a threat to the bipartisan work he hopes will come out of the Banking Committee.
The legislative agenda, Brown added, should not and will not include undoing former President Barack Obama’s 2010 financial reform legislation.
“That’s not going to happen and it would be counterproductive,” Brown said.
The law is working, he said, and lobbying to roll it back would increase uncertainty, hurting growth.
If, however, “you have a concrete problem based on evidence, Democrats want to work with you,” Brown explained.
House Republicans are expected to soon unveil legislation meant to replace the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, eliminating many of its rules for banks that instead choose to maintain higher capital levels.
Before Brown’s appearance, lobbyists with the American Bankers Association encouraged bankers visiting Washington to tell their representatives to support that expected legislation, being written by House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling.
