US House of Representatives Passes Regulatory Reform Bills and Senate Continues Debate on Regulatory Reform Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives passed four bills from the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, all by voice vote, which are primarily designed to reduce the regulatory burden on financial institutions.  The bills that passed include:  the Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act (H.R. 4607), which amends the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 to include the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. National Credit Union Administration, and would shorten the review cycle from every ten years to every seven years; a pair of bills that are based on provisions of the Financial CHOICE Act that passed the House in June of 2017 (the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act (H.R. 2226), which makes certain amendments to the Truth in Lending Act, and the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act (H.R. 4725), which amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to direct federal financial regulators to issue regulations that reduce the reporting requirements for the first and third annual report of condition for certain financial institutions with $5 billion or less in consolidated assets); and the Strategy for Combating the Financing of Transnational Criminal Organizations Act (H.R. 4768), which directs the President to establish, through the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, a strategy to disrupt the financial networks of transnational criminal organizations, which will be refreshed every two years.  At the same time the full U.S. Senate will continue debating the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act” (S. 2155), which passed the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.  A vote is possible this week, but before the legislation would go to the President’s desk, it would need to pass in the House.  To that end, House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling circulated a list of 29 proposals that he would want included in any final legislation.

View full text of the House bills.