Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It’s Tuesday evening, and we’re following the suspected terrorist incident in New York City that occurred earlier this afternoon.
THE BIG STORY: President Trump will sign a resolution Wednesday repealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule on forced arbitration, a White House aide told The Hill on Tuesday.
Trump has been widely expected to sign the resolution repealing the rule, which bans banks and credit card companies from blocking customers from suing them in class-action cases. The House passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to repeal the rule in July, which the Senate approved two weeks ago.
Trump will sign the resolution joined by the heads of banking and financial services trade groups that opposed the arbitration rules, according to three lobbyists familiar with the plans.
Republicans and business groups promised to kill the arbitration rule within hours of its release, insisting it would limit cheaper, easier options for customers to resolve conflicts with banks and credit card companies.
Democrats and progressive groups have long called for action on forced arbitration, which they say denies defrauded customers of basic constitutional rights. The CFPB rule was the most ambitious regulatory effort to do so.
ON TAP FOR WEDNESDAY:
A House Appropriations Subcommittee is holding an oversight hearing titled “Accountable Soft Power in the National Interest” at 10:30 a.m.
A House Financial Services Subcommittee will convene at 10:30 a.m. for a hearing on “Examining the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program.”
A House Financial Services subcommittee holds a hearing on data security following the massive Equifax breach at 2 p.m.
Representatives from Google, Facebook and Twitter will testify before both the House and Senate Intelligence committees on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election through social media. The hearings come as some lawmakers float tougher political ad disclosure laws on social media companies. The Senate hearing is at 9:30 a.m. followed by the House hearing at 2:00 p.m.
The Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on a number of nominees, including Hester Maria Peirce and Robert J. Jackson Jr. to be members of the Securities and Exchange Commission at 10 a.m.
The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing on nominees, including Dana Baiocco to be commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 10 a.m.
REGULATORY ROUNDUP:
Dodd-Frank foe to retire: Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who led the House GOP fight against the Dodd-Frank financial rules, is retiring at the end of his term.
Hensarling chairs the House Financial Services Committee and would be forced to step down from his position as chairman in 2019 due to GOP rules. The chairman said the term limits marked the right time to leave Congress to spend more time with his family.
“Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned,” he said.
After Dodd-Frank passed, the committee produced dozens of bills to restrict or eliminate major portions of the law. Many of those laid the foundation for Hensarling’s Financial CHOICE Act, the most ambitious attempt to reshape the Obama-era law.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called the CHOICE Act “the crown jewel” of the GOP agenda, and included it in the party’s 2017 policy platform. The House passed the bill along party lines in June, but GOP senators have shown little interest in a bill they consider too partisan to pass the upper chamber.
Hensarling has also advanced a slew of other fixes to Dodd-Frank through the committee, several with major bipartisan support, earning high marks from the financial services industry.
Energy and Environment: A federal trade panel is recommending that President Trump impose tariffs as high as 35 percent on solar power technology.
The International Trade Commission’s (ITC) four members outlined their preferences at a Tuesday hearing. The panel will send them next month to Trump, who has wide discretion to accept the recommendations, reject them or take other action.
The recommendations…
