RJ and Makay

Almost one year after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed, the House of Representatives is now working to delay its implementation to make sure regulators apply serious cost-benefit analysis to proposed regulation.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House Agricultural Committee advanced legislation to delay implementation of new rules that would govern derivatives markets.  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were given a July 21, 2011 deadline to write many of the new rules.  Both agencies have said they will likely miss the deadline.

The financial overhaul encompassed in the Dodd-Frank Act requires regulators to tackle the notion that big banks are too big to fail.  In yesterday’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, several top regulators said that new rules facing Wall Street adequately address issues to protect our financial system.

Some Republican lawmakers have taken issue with that claim, saying Dodd-Frank does little to end the too-big-to-fail problem where financial institutions become so large and interconnected that the government is left holding the bag in a crisis.