Senate advances bipartisan Dodd-Frank reforms

WASHINGTON—The Senate voted Tuesday to proceed on a bill that would loosen some of the banking regulations imposed after the 2008 financial crisis. Senators voted 67-32 on the motion, sending the bill to the floor for further deliberation and a final vote. If passed through Congress, the measure would rewrite parts of the financial regulations imposed under the landmark Dodd-Frank bill of 2010. This year’s bill, sponsored by Senate Banking Committee chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, would raise the threshold at which banks must adhere to strict financial regulations. Oversight requirements would loosen for banks with less than $250 billion in assets. Current law requires heavy scrutiny for banks with $50 billion or more in assets. “It will bring relief to small financial institutions hurt by Dodd-Frank’s one-size-fits-all approach,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday. The vote divided moderate Democrats from the rest of their caucus. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the bill’s biggest opponents, criticized some of her colleagues for supporting it. “The people in Congress may have forgotten the crash 10 years ago, but I guarantee that people across this country have not forgotten the pain that these giant banks caused, and they do not want to see Congress move toward deregulating these banks,” she said. Warren vowed to offer as many amendments as she could this week to slow-walk the legislation and prevent it from becoming law. If it clears a final Senate vote, the bill must still make it through the House.