Former congressman Barney Frank says he’s optimistic about the future of the landmark financial reform legislation that bears his name, even with Republican majorities set to attack it in Congress next year.
In an op-ed in the Portland Press-Herald, the former Democratic House Financial Services Committee chairman wrote that the recent uproar over a repeal of a small part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law contained in the “cromnibus” bill funding the government was an encouraging sign.
Even though President Obama signed the bill into law, Frank wrote, “I am greatly encouraged by the loud, sustained public outcry against the move. I believe that this demonstrates that even with the Republicans controlling both Houses, it will be very difficult for them to move further in this direction next year.”
Frank, who retired from Congress in 2013 and splits his time between Maine and Massachusetts, resurfaced in December when it came to light that the bill to authorize spending included a provision that would roll back part of the Dodd-Frank law. The measure prohibited banks from trading with certain kinds of derivatives in their banking divisions that receive deposit insurance.
Although Frank had opposed that Dodd-Frank provision in the past, he warned that repealing it as part of a larger, must-pass bill would set a bad precedent for future attempts to water down or undo the financial regulation law.
He joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in urging Democrats to vote against the bill, a position that put them into conflict with the Obama White House.
“What we now know is that this method is not going to shield people from the criticism that will come if they try to repeat it, including Obama,” Frank wrote of the effort by the repeal’s proponents to include it in a larger, unrelated bill.
The fight “made clear that any further effort to weaken the bill will come at great political cost to those pushing it,” Frank said. “I doubt very much that Obama will repeat the mistake he made in this case and agree to passing any further legislation that includes a partial repeal.”
Obama administration officials said last week that the experience with the spending bill would not be a precedent for further attempts to roll back financial regulations and that Obama would veto anti-Dodd-Frank bills if necessary.
