WASHINGTON - US Representative Barney Frank will take a short walk across Capitol Hill this week to defend the financial-regulation law that bears his name.
Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, will testify at the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow, the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank played a leading role in drafting the legislation.
“Barney is an author of the Dodd-Frank law and someone who understands the necessity of Wall Street reforms and consumer protections, and it will be valuable to get the insights of one of the named architects of the bill,’’ Senate Banking chairman Tim Johnson said. Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, will hold the hearing to review progress on the law since President Obama signed it. Regulators have spent the last year drafting and implementing hundreds of rules required by the law, which was almost unanimously opposed by Republicans.
Frank, who lost his chairmanship in January when the GOP took control of the House, said this month that Republicans were bluffing in their efforts to make major revisions or repeal the law.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro, and acting Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Martin J. Gruenberg are also scheduled to testify.
