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PETITION AGAINST PIECEMEAL GUTTING OF DODD-FRANK

Oppose H.R. 37 and H.R. 135, which seek to gut the Dodd-Frank Act through piece-meal \"technical amendments\"

As your constituent, I feel that you must OPPOSE current and ongoing attempts to roll-back crucial parts of the Dodd-Frank Act (?Dodd-Frank?). Specifically, you should oppose H.R. 37 (?Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act?), which is scheduled for a vote this week. President Obama, to his credit, has promised to veto this dangerous bill should it pass. I urge you to similarly vote against this unwarranted dilution of Dodd-Frank.



While proponents of H.R. 37 argue that it is merely a collection of ?technical? amendments to Dodd-Frank, the fact is that many of these changes would embolden regulated financial companies to continue undertaking the kind of risky financial activities that led to the Great Recession of 2008. The bill embodies the first salvo in the Republican-dominated 114th Congress?s bid to bring about the death of Dodd-Frank through a thousand cuts.



The bill has a number of troubling provisions, including:



1. Delays in applicability of the Volcker Rule to loan securitizations similar to the mortgage-backed deals that caused the 2008 crisis



2. Allowing private equity firms that provide investment banking services to avoid registering as broker dealers



3. Freeing so-called end-users from margin requirements in derivatives trading, thereby setting the stage for proliferation of credit risk from discrete end-users to the broader global economy.



4. Allowing approximately 60% of public companies to game the historical data in their financial statements.



Another bill under consideration, the Senate version of H.R. 185 (?Regulatory Accountability Act?) would greatly hamper the ability of our financial regulators to protect the public by destroying their independence and requiring needless, costly, time-consuming and one-sided, pro-Wall Street ?industry cost only analysis? for all rules.



These provisions are nothing more than an attempt by Wall Street lobbyists and their friends in Congress to eviscerate important reforms implemented by the Dodd-Frank Act. I encourage you to vote against H.R. 37, and thereby affirm that you support the public interest and not just that of Wall Street.