Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, July 17, 2012 - A subcommittee hearing on Thursday will examine how the consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act are felt far from Wall Street at a hearing to examine the law’s impact on families, communities and small businesses.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said, “The Dodd-Frank Act was supposed to rein in risky bets at the biggest Wall Street firms.  Instead, it’s making it more difficult for community banks to make loans and more expensive for small companies to do business.  Americans may think the Dodd-Frank Act doesn’t directly concern them, but the truth is families across the country are feeling the effects of this massive law.  This hearing will shine a light on how the consequences of this so-called Wall Street Reform Act have stretched all the way down to Main Street USA.”

As part of its review of Dodd-Frank, the Financial Services Committee earlier this year launched an online “burden tracker” to help Americans stay informed of the law’s red tape.  The burden tracker, which uses information from financial regulators, reveals that private companies will have to spend more than 24 million work hours every year to comply with just the first 224 new rules resulting from the passage of Dodd-Frank.  The law requires regulators to issue more than 400 new rules.

“Supporters of Dodd-Frank touted it as ‘tough Wall Street reform’, but its red tape reaches deep into the wallets and pocketbooks of millions of Americans and small businesses that had nothing to do with the financial crisis,” said Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus. 

July marks the two-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act being signed into law.  Throughout the month, the Financial Services Committee is holding hearings to examine the law’s aftermath and the effect its more than 400 new rules have on the economy, jobs and consumers.  Since January 2011, the Committee has held 62 hearings to identify provisions of Dodd-Frank that kill jobs and make it more expensive and more difficult for consumers and American companies to obtain credit.  The Committee has heard from more than 340 witnesses at these hearings.

Thursday’s subcommittee hearing will take place at 10 a.m. in room 2128 Rayburn.