U.S. House approves bill on financial
regulation costs
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[January 13, 2017]
By Lisa Lambert
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of
Representatives on Thursday passed a bill requiring the country's top
securities regulator to add up the costs of following new rules before
putting them into force, part of a Republican push to reform the federal
bureaucracy.
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.
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The U.S. Capitol Building is lit at sunset in Washington, U.S.,
December 20, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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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