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By a
vote of 243-183, the chamber passed the bill, largely along
party lines, which would also require the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission to periodically review its existing rules.
"Whether it is buying a car or choosing a college savings plan,
every American family weighs the pros and cons before making
major life decisions," said Representative Ann Wagner, the
Missouri Republican who sponsored the bill.
The legislation "simply requires that the Commission engages in
the same process and can justify that the benefits of a proposed
regulation will outweigh its costs," she said.
At the same time, the House passed a bill requiring the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the country's derivatives
regulator, to assess the costs and benefits of proposed
regulations or orders.
The CFTC legislation also treads into two long-standing
disputes.
It bars the SEC from lowering the dollar-amount threshold for
requiring swap dealers to register with it. Currently the bar is
at $8 billion, and there have been moves to drop it to $3
billion.
It also restricts the commission in limiting positions that
traders can hold in the commodity markets. The CFTC has pushed
off finalizing those limits, included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank
Wall Street reform law to prevent fraud and manipulation, over
Republicans' concerns they will hurt farmers and small
businesses.
Republican lawmakers who control Congress are eager to ease
regulation and undo rules enacted under President Barack Obama,
a Democrat.
Nonetheless, Democrats hold enough seats in the U.S. Senate to
block the SEC and CFTC legislation. Only nine Democrats in the
House voted for the SEC bill, and seven for the CFTC bill. A
single Republican, North Carolina's Walter Jones, voted against
both bills.
(Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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