Washington, D.C.— Today, U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), and U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) led a group of colleagues in introducing the Business Opportunity Protection Act (BOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. This legislation would repeal unnecessary and unused Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discretionary authorities granted by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was enacted in 2010.
After the Dodd-Frank law was implemented, regulatory costs for banks exploded. One 2019 study from the Baker Institute at Rice University found that bank regulations doubled and that compliance costs increased by $50B per year. The study also found that small banks were disproportionately impacted, seeing spikes to their auditing, consulting, data processing, and legal fees.
“Dodd-Frank slowed our recovery from the 2008 recession and will go down as one of the biggest power grabs by federal regulators in history,” said Congressman Barr, Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions. “More than 15 years later, I’m teaming up with Senator Ricketts to prevent the SEC from imposing any more regulations under Dodd-Frank that haven’t already been implemented.”
“15 years is more than enough time for the SEC to evaluate the necessity of unused authorities,” said Senator Ricketts. “But just because they haven’t been used does not mean they should remain on the books. “Unused discretionary authorities at the SEC create a regulatory overhang—businesses are forced to plan for rules and compliance burdens that could appear overnight. It’s time to restore balance, accountability, and certainty to the SEC and take unused discretionary authorities off the books for good.”
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