In a telephone press briefing, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and former Representative Barney Frank, co-author of the landmark 2010 financial reform law, outlined the dangers of a House spending-bill provision that would repeal an important piece of the Dodd-Frank Act. They were joined by Damon A. Silvers, director of policy and special counsel for the AFL-CIO; Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform.

Under Dodd-Frank, bank holding companies must segregate, and independently fund, their riskiest and most exotic derivatives trading so that taxpayers no longer need fear being left on the hook for bad bets. But now, in a backroom deal buried deep in a stopgap government-funding measure, influential lawmakers seem prepared to do Wall Street’s bidding by including a measure – originally authored by lobbyists for Citigroup, the New York Times reports – that would undo this reform.