The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed Representative Lynn Westmoreland’s bill, H.R. 4894, to repeal Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Rep. Westmoreland issued the following statement:
 
“Georgia’s community banks were devastated by the recession, and continue to suffer under Dodd-Frank today. I thank my colleagues for voting in favor of repealing Title II and the Orderly Liquidation Authority to protect our community banks from more big government regulations.”
 
Repealing Title II, and with it, the Orderly Liquidation Authority, would ensure that the federal government is no longer involved in the process of seizure and receivership of failing financial institutions, which ultimately provides a backdoor bailout of creditors and counter parties at cost to taxpayers.
 
“Title II is another bureaucratic nightmare within Dodd-Frank, which uses big government as the solution to our financial problems,” stated Westmoreland. “It continues the ‘Too Big to Fail’ model which allows firms, their creditors, and counterparties to receive a government bailout at the taxpayer’s expense. By turning the OLA process over to Washington bureaucrats, they are refusing our banks the right to a stable, non-partisan judicial review of their bankruptcy case in court.
 
“Similar to Title I and the “systemically important financial institution” designation, the Title II OLA process continues to allow government bureaucrats to pick winners and losers. Repealing Title II removes the government’s power grab and ability to choose the recipients of receivership and liquidation. After the 2008 crash, banks in Georgia and across the nation need the government out of the way and allow for fair, competition to take its course.”
 
In addition to eliminating the role for government bureaucrats in a failing firm’s liquidation process, repealing Title II and OLA provides significant cost savings. Initial CBO estimates found that the repeal would save $2.2 billion over fiscal year 2017-2018 and a total of $21.3 billion over the next 10 years.
 
H.R. 4892 now heads to the Majority Leader’s office to be scheduled for a vote on the House Floor.