60
C O V E R S T O R Y / R Y A N S C H U E T T E
Two days after the election, then-President Barack Obama
met with his successor in the Oval Office. As Obama and
then-President-elect Donald Trump addressed journalists,
the moment presaged a historic transition—one that
signaled the end of one era and the start of another. With
Republicans in control of both the White House and Congress, it became
clear that Obama's legacy was in jeopardy, and Trump's agenda on the rise.
Now, three months into the new
administration, the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act—the financial-reform law responsible
for spawning a host of new banking rules,
regulatory agencies, and billions of dollars
in enforcement actions—joins Obamacare
in awaiting a bill that may gut or outright
replace it. White House Chief of Staff
Reince Preibus ordered a freeze on any new
regulations in January, but executive action
can only do so much, and GOP officials in
Congress have yet to release a new bill that
would curtail Dodd-Frank just yet.
Speaking with DS News, prominent
former officials and D.C. insiders cleared up
the swirl of confusion around the law's fate.
Some of what they've said is surprising, some
not, but what's clear is that the unwieldy
repeal process is a matter of when—not if.
Gary Goldberg, a principal in the
regulatory practice of the D.C.-based law
firm Dentons and a 10-year veteran staffer for
Democrats on the House Financial Services
Committee, thinks GOP elected officials may
have too much on their plates to stick a fork in
Dodd-Frank immediately.
"e problem for Republicans who wish
to repeal or significantly dial back Dodd-
Frank is that it will be very difficult to effect
a wholesale change in Dodd-Frank on a
piecemeal basis," Goldberg said.
