FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 21, 2025

CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

House Panel Advances Legislation Stripping Guardrails for Retirement Savers
As Trump regulators push radical deregulation, Congress would amplify the problems

Today,  the House Financial Services Committee completed a two-day markup of 25 bills, the bulk of which seek to undermine investor protections, threaten the securities market stability, and erode safety and soundness of the banking system. Much of the legislation advanced in these mark-ups fulfills specific recommendations by the extremist Project 2025.

“These measures would undermine safeguards and protections investors have come to rely on,” said Oscar Valdés Viera, AFR’s private equity and capital markets policy analyst. “Without these guardrails, people and families saving for retirement will be incredibly vulnerable to deep financial risks, including exposure of highly volatile private funds, imperiling their retirement savings. If the bills advance to the House floor, lawmakers should reject them resoundingly.”

AFR sent a letter as well as a detailed description of AFR’s position on the legislation being considered by the Committee to Ranking Member Maxine Waters ahead of the markup. Only four of these bills would further the public interest and strengthen protections for investors. Along with 24 other groups, AFR also sent a letter opposing the FIRM Act to the Committee.

“The committee is moving bills that diminish investor protections even as the leadership, independence, and capacity of the financial regulators mandated with implementing those statutes face existential threats,” Oscar Valdés Viera said. “If enacted, laws that permit the fleecing of mom-and-pop investors will be implemented by agency leadership hell-bent on extreme deregulation.”

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