Republicans look to curb Dodd-Frank in budget

House Republicans want to scrap central pieces of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in their latest budget.

As the party has in previous proposals, the new plan from House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) would scrap the government’s ability to step in and wind down failing financial institutions. It would also subject the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to the appropriations process.

{mosads}Those proposals are nothing new for House Republicans, who have repeatedly proposed repealing these particular provisions in the past. The last budget from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in 2014 proposed the exact same changes.

Price’s plan blasted Dodd-Frank as imposing “onerous policies” on financial institutions of all sizes, and places it alongside ObamaCare as subjecting the economy to an “enormous burden.”

Republicans have frequently pushed for some sort of bankruptcy plan to deal with ailing financial institutions, as opposed to the orderly liquidation authority handed to bank regulators under Dodd-Frank.

Under the law, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) can temporarily use taxpayer funds to step in and helping gradually wind down a collapsing bank. Republicans have argued such a policy actually perpetuates bailouts instead of ending them, despite the fact that all costs from a liquidation are eventually recouped by new fees on the financial industry.

Republicans have also repeatedly sought to gain more control over the CFPB’s budget. The agency currently receives its funding directly from the Fed. But Republicans, long critical of the agency, argue that this arrangement makes the bureau unaccountable and want to see its funding levels set by lawmakers instead.