Lobbyists are slowing Dodd-Frank rulemaking
STEVE CHIOTAKIS:Tomorrow marks one year to the day that President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into law. Much of the Wall Street crackdown has yet to transpire. Marketplace’s Bob Moon reports special interests on both sides are still battling over efforts to put those new regulations into effect.
Bob Moon: Like mosquitos drawn to a swamp, financial industry lobbyists have been swarming Washington, looking to make the most of what’s become a rule-making bog.
Bill Allison: There are 240-some rules that are required by the law, and that’s really where the action is.
Bill Allison has been tracking the law’s progress for the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog group. He says Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley top the list of banks spending tens of millions to sway the law in their favor. Congress didn’t actually write new rules, but left that to the regulators.
Allison: The agencies have logged over 2,100 meetings with outside parties interested in influencing these final rules.
And it’s not just the banks.
Allison: There have been consumer groups, labor unions, and I think that that makes for a very, very slow process.
Regulators have fallen behind on 120 rule-making deadlines due on the bill’s anniversary. But Allison points out: Look at all the work that’s been created for the lobbyists in Washington.
Allison: In one way, you can look at it as kind of a full employment act for K Street.
I’m Bob Moon for Marketplace.
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