Middle-Market Public Policy Roundup
In this week's headlines, the Senate confirmed appointees and mulled how to pass tax reform while the administration pushed to roll back the Volcker Rule.
Volcker Rule Rewrite on the Docket
Efforts by the Trump administration to roll back regulation without Congress are well underway. Bloomberg reports a meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council resulted in consensus that the Volcker Rule, which restricts certain investment activities by banks, is due for a rewrite. FSOC regulators hope to complete any proposal by the end of the year, though due to the various administrative policies of each agency, that could take as many as five years. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department division, has opened up a public comment period for revising the Volcker Rule.
The FSOC consists of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Senate Confirms Backlog of Appointees
The U.S. Senate appointed 10 key financial regulators on Wednesday, per The Hill. Appointments include the chief of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, two commissioners for the agency and key Treasury Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development positions. Federal regulators of the financial system, as well as other bodies of governance, have suffered from a lack of staff in key areas since President Trump’s inauguration. In total, the Senate confirmed 65 nominees in the final day before its August recess.
Senate Dems Talk Tax
Forty-five of the 48 Democrats currently holding seats in the Senate signed a letter imploring Republicans to avoid using reconciliation to pass any tax reform package, says Politico. Reconciliation is a process by which laws can be passed with a simple majority—though any tax reform passed through reconciliation must still net the same amount of total tax dollars, or else it will sunset in 10 years. The letter implies that Democrats believe the Republican majority will pass a temporary bill that will result in budget deficits in favor of temporary economic benefits.
Michigan Congressman Spotlights Middle-Market Business
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee on Wednesday visited manufacturer GLE Precision, headquartered in Michigan’s Bridgeport Township within Kildee’s home district. Leadership from GLE, which MMG profiled in May, shared with the Congressman issues it faces along with other midsize businesses, including interest deductibility, the Export-Import Bank, the labor market and more.
ACG helped facilitate Kildee’s visit to GLE, featured in a video posted by ABC News. Stay tuned for a forthcoming feature on the visit on middlemarketgrowth.org.
Check back each Friday for the weekly Public Policy Roundup. Is there a public policy issue you’d like us to cover? Send your suggestions to MMG Associate Editor Kathryn Mulligan at kmulligan@acg.org.
Ben Marsico works on public policy issues for ACG.
