Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released the following statement on legislation to roll back bank regulations in Dodd-Frank:

“A decade ago, the U.S. economy was on the brink of collapse. Banks were teetering. Unemployment was skyrocketing. Millions of jobs were lost. Trillions of dollars in savings evaporated.

“In response, Congress passed TARP to help stabilize the economy, then got to work on broader reforms. The end result was the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a bill that put in place policies to counter the forces that allowed the 2008 financial crisis to happen.

“Now, 10 years later, Congress is threatening to loosen the protections we put in place to keep us from returning to those frightening days. This bill will have real consequences. The nonpartisan CBO says the probability of a large bank failing or another financial crisis will go up if this bill is enacted.

“It appears that we’ve forgotten not only the lessons from 10 years ago, but also the devastating consequences for American families. In California, more than 2 million people were unemployed, 3.5 million mortgages were at risk and nearly 200,000 people filed for bankruptcy. We simply can’t return to that time.

“Phil Angelides, who served as chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, penned a letter to Senate Banking Committee leaders criticizing the bill we’re now debating. He said rolling back regulations and supervision for banks with assets between $50 billion and $250 billion is a terrible decision. Here’s what he said:

‘The bill's provisions to lift the asset threshold for enhanced prudential standards and supervision from $50 billion to $250 billion would substantially reduce oversight over 25 of the nation's 38 largest banks, including institutions of over $100 billion in assets that were deemed “Too Big To Fail” in 2009. A number of financial institutions with less than $250 billion triggered the need for bailout assistance during the crisis and history has shown, time and again, that the failure of financial firms that are not among the largest mega-banks can pose systemic threats to financial stability.’

“If we don’t learn from past failures, we’re doomed to repeat them. I’m voting against this bill because it simply goes too far and needlessly places our economy and families at risk.”

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