This legislation is the latest effort to cripple regulators’ ability to protect the public interest by loading them down with new paperwork requirements and enabling even more industry lawsuits. HR 50 would impose dozens of new analysis burdens on the financial regulators who oversee Wall Street, and then change the law to ensure the ability of big banks to sue to stop a regulation based on even a single claimed analytical failure.

Now, on top of all this other damage, HR 50 has been amended to include a $36 million cut in the budgetary authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is doing the crucially important job it was created to do: making consumer financial markets fairer and more transparent, putting money back in the pockets of members of the public fleeced by illegal conduct, and policing rules of the road that make the financial system work better for responsible businesses and responsible consumers alike. Cutting the agency’s budget authority would be a terrible mistake.

HR 50 would tilt the playing field even further in favor of financial sector companies and lobbyists. It would be a gift to Wall Street and would invite a resurgence of the reckless practices that caused such enormous economic damage just six years ago.