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Obama Threatens to Veto Bill that Defunds Wall Street Reform
Think Progress / News Report
Published: Saturday 30 June 2012
The 2013 Financial Services bill is heading to the House floor after being considered by the Rules Committee on Thursday.
House Republicans, after failing to prevent the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law from passing Congress, have attempted to undermine it by refusing to give Wall Street regulators adequate funds to do their jobs. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are short of the funding they require, and House Republicans recently voted in committee to fund the SEC $245 million below the Obama administration’s request for 2013.
However, should that funding bill actually reach President Obama’s desk, he has announced that he will veto it:
The 2013 Financial Services bill is heading to the House floor after being considered by the Rules Committee on Thursday.
“The bill severely undermines key investments in financial oversight and implementation of Wall Street reform to protect American consumers, as well as needed tax enforcement and taxpayer services. It also hampers effective implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),” the White House statement reads.
House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee also recently approved a cut of $25 million to the CFTC’s budget.
Just ten days ago, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee admitted that Wall Street regulators do not have the resources necessary to do what Congress has asked of them. However, House Republicans have not acted to rectify the situation, instead bringing to the House floor a bill that would simply exacerbate the problem.
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ABOUT Pat Garofalo
Pat Garofalo is Economic Policy Editor for ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Pat’s work has also appeared in The Nation, U.S. News & World Report, The Guardian, the Washington Examiner, and In These Times. He has been a guest on MSNBC and Al-Jazeera television, as well as many radio shows. Pat graduated from Brandeis University, where he was the editor-in-chief of The Brandeis Hoot, Brandeis’ community newspaper, and worked for the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life.
6 comments on "Obama Threatens to Veto Bill that Defunds Wall Street Reform"
July 01, 2012 8:24am
If we don't stand together and fight it will get much worse. Divide and conquer is working for the super wealthy and corporations. Turn off faux news and think. Anyone think what Murdoch did in Britain he is not doing here?
June 30, 2012 12:50pm
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June 30, 2012 11:18am
If a government wants to limit litigation, a government must have effective, well-funded regulatory powers. I win the argument :)
June 30, 2012 10:47am
Are they actually going to do anything even if funded? After all the SEC et al didn't do anything prior to the meltdown, despite warnings.
June 30, 2012 9:52am
United States of America or United Corporations of America, which will it be/
June 30, 2012 9:40am
This is how Romney’s going to “shrink” government, the Paul Ryan budget: Medicare is a great part of govt. Let’s close down Medicare. Fifty million seniors without health care? Go buy it in the free market. Can’t afford it? Not the government’s fault, besides, serves ‘em right for not stacking money for their retirement like I did. Social Security takes a big chunk of govt. Close SS. Millions of homeless seniors begging for food? Just look the other way. The Department of Education’s taking us to the poorhouse. Eliminate the DE. Have people hire their own teachers. Can’t afford it? 40 million illiterates aren’t going to sink the nation. Let’s keep shrinking govt by closing the EPA. Tell Big Oil: Drill baby, drill. Disasters like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? Well, you can’t win ‘em all. I’ll cut from all sides: Eliminate food stamps, Medicaid, SEC, Banking Commission, let it all go to dog-eat-dog. Been taken to the cleaners by a scam artist? Serves you right for being a sucker. You’ve got to let people make their millions anyway they can. From now on Ponzi schemes are legal. Regulations are ruining the nation.