Durbin, Welch statement on committee passage of House big bank bonanza bill

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Peter Welch (D-VT) released the following statement regarding the Financial CHOICE Act, legislation by U.S. Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) that would gut the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and repeal debit swipe fee reform. The bill was just passed by Hensarling’s House Financial Services Committee on a party line vote.   

The Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee just chose to serve big banks over Main Street and consumers.  The Financial CHOICE Act’s nearly 600 pages would gut consumer protections and unleash the same predatory forces that caused the financial meltdown of 2008 and led to the Great Recession.

Not only would the bill cripple the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, eviscerate oversight and accountability for the financial industry, and allow big banks to once again gamble with their customers’ money, it would also repeal debit swipe fee reform and double the fees that big banks charge on debit transactions.  This would be like dropping an $8 billion per year tax increase on Main Street businesses – it would cause prices to go up for consumers at the grocery store and the gas pump, all for the benefit of big banks that are already making record profits. 

Chairman Hensarling and his fellow committee Republicans are turning their backs on American families and small businesses with this big bank bonanza bill. The better choice would be to keep critical Wall Street reform protections in place and reject this misguided bill. 

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