Financial Services Committee Holds Hearing: ''Dodd-Frank: Are We More Free?''

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing titled "The Dodd-Frank Act Five Years Later: Are We More Free?" This is the third installment of the Committee's five recent hearings on the Dodd-Frank Act.

Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) opened the hearing by asserting that "Dodd-Frank exemplifies the insidious belief among many Washington elites that the American people cannot be trusted to make good decisions for themselves so government must do it for them." Congressman Hensarling condemned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council as (respectively) "the ultimate expression of [an] elitist attitude" and as enacting the "rule of rulers" rather than the "rule of law."

The Committee's press release of the hearing stated that "key takeaways" from the witnesses included that the Dodd-Frank Act (i) results in a "less dynamic economy" and a "command-and-control system" where "regulators dictate credit offerings" and "individual freedom and choice are sacrificed"; (ii) grants regulators "unbridled discretionary power" to make credit products less available, more expensive or nonexistent and (iii) "smothers opportunities to grow the economy" due to its "costly rules."

Of the witnesses, four generally criticized the Dodd-Frank Act. However, Mr. Gupta spoke in fervent support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, describing it as "Dodd-Frank's crown jewel" and asserting that it "has already proven that it is protecting consumers' freedom to achieve the American dream. . . ."

The witnesses were as follows:

• Dr. Matthew Spalding, Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs, Hillsdale College;
• The Honorable C. Boyden Gray, Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates;
• Professor David A. Skeel, S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School;
• Mr. Deepak Gupta, Founding Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC; and
• Professor Todd J. Zywicki, Foundation Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law and Economics Center, George Mason University School of Law.