[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 116 (Thursday, July 23, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF DODD-FRANK ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. JOYCE BEATTY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 22, 2015

  Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Waters of the 
Financial Services Committee for leading today's important discussion 
on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
  Earlier this week, House Democrats recognized the 5th anniversary of 
Dodd-Frank--the most sweeping financial regulatory reform in the United 
States since the 1930s.
  Signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010, Dodd-Frank has 
changed--for the better--the way consumers, investors, and other market 
participants interact with our financial system.
  It has provided oversight to Wall Street, giving regulators the tools 
to end the era of ``too big to fail'' entities and outrageous taxpayer 
bailouts, and has eliminated loopholes that allowed risky and abusive 
practices to go unnoticed and unregulated.
  But how did we get here?
  Five years ago, Dodd-Frank was enacted in the wake of profound 
economic devastation as our nation was reeling from the impact of the 
2008 financial crisis.
  Millions of Americans suffered job loss, many small businesses closed 
down, foreclosures skyrocketed, the stock market suffered large drops, 
and a looming repeat of the Great Depression was feared.
  Specifically, in the six months before President Obama took office in 
February 2009, our economy lost a total of nearly 4 million private 
sector jobs--an unimaginable average of 650,000 jobs per month.
  Nearly $13 trillion in economic growth and $16 trillion in household 
wealth simply disappeared while close to 9 million individuals were 
displaced from their homes.
  2008 was truly one of the lowest economic points in U.S. history.
  Yet, the American people weathered this storm and Congressional 
Democrats took action by passing legislation to restore responsibility 
and accountability in our financial system, and to give Americans 
confidence that we were putting the tools in place to avoid another 
economic crisis.
  In fact, since Dodd-Frank's passage in July 2010, the American 
economy has experienced vast improvement in private sector job growth 
with nearly 12 million jobs added; a lower unemployment rate, to 5.3 
percent from the peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009, and a recovering 
housing market.
  Indeed, because of Dodd-Frank, financial regulators are now empowered 
to identify and address risks to our financial system through increased 
monitoring and stricter rules for our nation's biggest banks in a 
timely way.
  Dodd-Frank also provided new authority to the Securities and Exchange 
Commission (SEC), which, since 2011, has recovered more than $9.3 
billion in civil fines and penalties despite Republicans' repeated 
budget cuts to the agency.
  Like all comprehensive reform bills, however, Dodd-Frank is not 
perfect.
  There are a few areas that I believe can be improved.
  Nonetheless, it is important that we do not let the perfect be the 
enemy of the good.
  I believe we also have a responsibility to build upon and improve 
this legislation when needed.
  One area of concern for many stakeholders in my district, and across 
the country, is the manner in which Dodd-Frank requires the Federal 
Reserve to subject bank holding companies with more than $50 billion in 
consolidated assets to enhanced regulatory supervision.
  However, if we are to subject smaller, regional bank holding 
companies to the same or similar supervisory requirements, then we 
should do so in a way that balances our nation's financial stability 
without placing excessive burdens on non-systemically important 
institutions by using a more deliberative assets-and-activities-based 
test should be considered in determining the ``systemic importance'' of 
bank holding companies.
  Earlier this month, Chair Yellen testified that she was open to 
raising a threshold for determining a bank's systemic importance.
  I look forward to working with her on this issue and African-American 
job growth efforts.
  This is at the top of my priority list for improving Dodd-Frank.
  Another area of concern for me lies in the development of diversity 
assessment standards under Section 342 of Dodd-Frank, also known as 
OMWI.
  Though Section 342 is not very long, it is a very significant step in 
the effort to improve the hiring of women and minorities in the 
financial services industry in which these groups remain woefully 
underrepresented.
  However, due to misinterpretations of congressional intent, I am 
concerned that after five years the federal financial regulators have 
not developed standards requiring the disclosure of diversity data, 
which would provide much needed transparency to this industry regarding 
the promotion of diversity in its workplace.
  Like my congressional colleagues here today, I celebrate substantial 
achievements of Dodd-Frank and look forward to working together to find 
the appropriate tweaks to further facilitate its positive lasting 
effects on the financial markets and for consumers far beyond this 
five-year anniversary.
  In order to continue being a successful nation, we must capitalize on 
our diversity and tackle the inequality in wage and job growth in 
African-American communities.

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