WASHINGTON – The House Financial Services Committee is pushing off votes on a revised version of the Financial CHOICE Act until 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, the committee leaders announced Tuesday afternoon.
The committee started its voting session on the revised act Tuesday morning, but the session was quickly prolonged by an agreement to allow each committee member to have a two-minute opening statement and a move by Democrats that would have forced the committee clerk to read through the entire 591-page bill. The clerk got through roughly the first third of the bill before Democrats allowed the hearing to move on.
The CHOICE -- or Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs -- Act contains several provisions related to the municipal market and is designed to be a replacement for the Dodd-Frank Act. It is the second version of such a bill from Financial Services Committee chair Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. Though It is expected to clear the Financial Services Committee, the bill is likely to face a harder time in the House and Senate because it hasn't garnered any Democratic support.
Republicans and Democrats sparred over the act on Tuesday with Republicans praising it as a much needed change to Dodd-Frank, which they said has hurt the U.S. economy and financial system. Democrats blasted the CHOICE Act in part as an ill-conceived attempt to cater to big banks.
