House Financial Services and General Government Passes FY 2018 Bill

On Thursday, June 29, 2017, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government passed its FY2018 bill, including $20.23B in discretionary funding, which is a six percent reduction from FY2017 funding levels.  The bill contained a number of provisions from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s (R-TX) Financial CHOICE Act, including:

  • Bringing the CFPB under the Congressional appropriations process;
  • Elimination of the Bureau’s supervision authority;
  • Removal of the agency’s UDAAP authority;
  • Repeal of CFPB’s authority to restrict arbitration;
  • Removal of CFPB’s authority to regulate small-dollar credit;
  • Repeal of the small business data collection requirement;
  • Eliminating the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s authority to designate non-bank financial companies as “systemically important;” and
  • Repeal of the Volcker Rule.

Chairman Tom Graves (R-GA) said he was particularly excited about the financial reforms included in the bill, saying he belived it would reign in “the rogue, high-dollar, out of control, unaccountable CFPB.”  Hoever, Democrats opposed the bill in part because of it’s Financial CHOICE Act policy riders.

 

The full committee is expected to take up the bill the week of July 10, 2017, and the Senate Appropriations Committee is unlikely to markup its version until after the August recess.