Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, on. Wednesday called on financial regulators to halt their “politicized regulatory agenda” given Donald Trump’s “historic win.”
Hill sent a letter to the Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve, National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Housing Finance Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about their “excessive regulatory overreach.”
“In light of the historic win last week by President-elect Donald J. Trump, I call on you to immediately cease all ongoing rulemaking actions and suspend the proposal or promulgation of any regulations,” Hill wrote to the regulators.
He continued:
Americans have expressed their widespread discontent over the outgoing administration’s excessive regulatory overreach throughout the past four years. This relentless rulemaking agenda has stifled economic growth and innovation, and restricted consumer access to financial products. As a matter of transparency and public accountability, each of your agencies should abandon any action or plan to force through a politicized regulatory agenda, which voters have already rejected. It is in the interest of all Americans that this agenda be halted immediately in order to restore the balance between the government and the people it serves.
Republicans over the last four years have hounded these financial regulators for pushing politicized policies.
For instance, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) in March 2023 grilled SEC Chairman Gary Gensler over the agency’s scheme to enact onerous climate change disclosures for businesses.
“Well it’s very clear in these sections, it is not explicit as far your lane is concerned, and I say it’s time to reel it in,” Hinson told Gensler during a hearing.
Related: Ashley Hinson Rips Sec Gary Gensler Over Agency’s Climate Disclosure Rule
House Appropriations CommitteeThe Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the proposed climate change disclosure rule would require companies to a substantial amount of data:
The proposed reporting rules would require public companies to include a raft of climate data in their audited financial statements. The mandated disclosures cover everything from costs caused by wildfires to the loss of a sales contract because of climate regulations, such as a cap on carbon emissions.
Companies would have to analyze climate-related costs and risks for each line item of their financial statements, such as revenue, inventories or intangible assets. Any climate costs that are 1% or more of each line item total would have to be reported.
Under current rules, companies are generally required to disclose only those climate costs and risks they judge to be material, or significant, for investors. SEC officials are concerned that too few companies are reporting such important climate costs and risks.
In January 2024, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said that Gensler’s investigation of free speech platform Rumble may be interfering the site’s role in the 2024 presidential election.
The cryptocurrency and digital asset community cheered the election of Trump, believing that the 47th president would be more friendly to the industry than the Biden-Harris. The SEC had filed lawsuits against many major crypto exchanges, threatening to shut them down. American-based digital exchange Coinbase described the fight against Gensler and the SEC as “existential.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
