Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., expressed her distaste for a bill that would change portions of the Dodd-Frank financial law Tuesday, saying deregulating the banking industry would harm consumers.
"This bill hurts consumers. It makes it easier for banks, once again, to offer risky home loans to consumers that can't afford them," Warren said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
The Senate is poised to pass a bill that would strip some of the regulations from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.
Warren said the move would benefit the larger players in the financial industry.
"This bill is all about the big banks," she said, adding that the bill raises the risk of another financial meltdown.
The bill raises the threshold of what is considered a big bank in terms of it being critical to the financial system from $50 billion to $250 billion. This would ease regulations on banks and financial companies such as BB&T, Sun Trust, and American Express.
"A bank that is a quarter of a trillion dollars is not a community bank. And it should not be regulated like a community bank," Warren said. "To do that is extraordinarily dangerous for the economy."
The bill under consideration has backing on both sides of the aisle and appears to have enough support to gain at least 60 votes. Warren said that is the case because lobbyists have convinced lawmakers that it's a good bill.
"The lobbyists speak loud here," she said. "The people don't."
After the 2008 collapse, Warren was the chair of the newly created Congressional Oversight Panel from 2010-2011. She also was a special adviser for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before winning election to the Senate in 2012.
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