Republicans Give Another Blank Check to Wall Street

This week, the U.S. House passed a bill to roll back protections that were put in place to prevent another financial crisis. The bill, known as the "Bank Lobbyist Act," is the latest in a string of rewards for the banking industry delivered by this Congress. To make matters worse, Republicans blocked the inclusion of an amendment from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) that would have helped rein in the growing trend of big banks offshoring American jobs – a trend that is set to be accelerated by the Republican corporate tax cut bill.

CWA recently released a report detailing numerous examples of how major banks have been laying off American workers while ramping up operations overseas in low-wage countries. Despite the massive windfall the banking industry is set to gain from the tax bill, there is no movement from the big banks to return jobs from overseas. In fact, the tax bill actually encourages the additional offshoring of American jobs.

Rep. Pocan's amendment would have made financial institutions that have outsourced more than 50 jobs in a year ineligible for some of the deregulatory provisions in the new legislation and subject to stricter federal oversight. A similar amendment proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during debate of the bill in the Senate was blocked by Republicans.

House Republicans also blocked an amendment offered by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) that would have prevented deregulation of big banks that use predatory sales goals and quotas like those that drove the Wells Fargo fake account scandal.

"Republicans have once again given Wall Street and major banks a blank check to continue their exploitation of American workers and consumers," said CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson.

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