Senate Democrats might have been working with Republicans to pass the so-called Bank Lobbyist Act, which rolls back some of the rules put in place by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, for naught. Because the person in charge in the House has no intention of allowing it to proceed there.
Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the chamber had no intention of "rubber stamping" the measure that the Senate passed on Wednesday evening. He said the Senate bill marked the beginning of negotiations.
"Some seem to be under the impression that we are going to vote on their bill," Mr. Hensarling said during a briefing on Thursday. "They are under a misimpression." […]
"Why would we look at this product in the Senate as the max that should be done?" asked Representative Bill Huizenga, a Republican from Michigan.
Loosening regulations for 25 of the nation's 38 biggest banks, exempting banks with less that $10 billion from the Volcker Rule, and allowing institutions to racially discriminate in mortgage lending just isn't enough for House Republicans. Hensarling says "that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has assured him the bill won't move 'unless and until the Senate negotiates with the House.'" As of now, the lead negotiator among Senate Democrats is not going to play.
"There are some out there that will say this bill is going to look completely different when it comes back from the House," Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a Banking Committee member who supported the package and faces a tough reelection fight this year, told reporters last week. "It may. If it does, then I guess we're done."
The banksters want this, whatever win they can get, and they are engaging in some powerful wishful thinking. "Politically, this is really a too-big-to-fail achievement for Republicans, because their majority is challenged, and there is a premium to getting a bipartisan bill through, and the Senate is the long pole in that tent," Capital Alpha President Charles Gabriel said. Senate Democrats up for re-election this year also believe a bipartisan bill passing is key.
All along, Hensarling has been declaring that he won't just take the Senate bill, insisting on the inclusion of no less than 30 House bills in the larger package. This isn't coming out of nowhere. So maybe the 17 members of the Democratic conference in the Senate just got punked, conned into a process that created a rift with fellow Democrats and pissed off the base on a bill that Republican leadership knew wouldn't pass. Or maybe Republican leadership is that incompetent and Mitch McConnell just spent over a week on a bill that Ryan had already rejected. Either way, it's not a good look for Congress.