Trump: Dodd-Frank rollback ‘should be done fairly quickly’

President Trump on Thursday said bipartisan efforts to loosen strict banking rules enacted after the 2008 financial crisis “should be done fairly quickly.”

Trump said during a West Virginia event on tax policy that his administration is pushing to ease lending restrictions imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act. He appeared to refer to a bipartisan Senate bill to rollback Dodd-Frank that passed in March, but that House Republicans have refused to pass without further changes.

{mosads}“It should be done fairly quickly,” Trump said, addressing a banker participating in the event. “We’re actually getting — you won’t believe this — bipartisan support.”

Trump went on to attack Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who was an original co-sponsor of the bill the president appeared to tout.

“Does anybody believe that?” Trump said, referring to the bipartisan support for the Dodd-Frank rollback. “Maybe Joe won’t, but most people.”

Trump has called for “dismantling” Dodd-Frank and loosening lending restrictions imposed by the 2010 law signed by former President Obama.

Trump said his administration has already “made it a lot easier to for you to lend now,” but no major changes to Dodd-Frank have passed both chambers of Congress during Trump’s term.

“A short period of time ago, you were not able to lend because of rules, regulation and you were lending to people you didn’t even want to lend,” Trump said.

“You have some incredible people who want to borrow money, they could never borrow money to start a business.”

The bipartisan Senate bill passed last month exempts smaller banks from several Dodd-Frank lending restrictions meant to prevent banks from extending risky loans. Critics of Dodd-Frank say the rules prevented community banks with no systemic risk to the larger financial system from serving trustworthy customers who had fallen on hard times.

The bill, introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), passed with the support of more than a dozen Democrats. It is the most sweeping changes to Dodd-Frank to earn bipartisan support and the product of several years of bipartisan negotiations.

The White House said in March that Trump supports the Crapo bill and would sign it into law. But the statement also gave some support to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Republicans who have vowed to block the deal unless the Senate agrees to add bills from the House Financial Services Committee.

“The President looks forward to discussing any further revisions the House is interested in making, with the goal of bipartisan, pro-growth Dodd-Frank relief reaching his desk as soon as possible,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a March 14 statement.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and his deputies are have asked senators to choose from a list of more than two dozen bills from his panel that have earned bipartisan support. Hensarling, a close ally of Ryan, said the Speaker would freeze the bill until Senate agrees to deal.

“We’re not rubber-stamping the Senate bill,” Hensarling said in March. “Their bill is staying on the Speaker’s desk unless and until they’re willing to negotiate with the House.”

Senators backing the bill say they won’t negotiate with the House and insist that further changes would shatter the fragile bipartisan deal. Lobbyists for community and regional banks that stand to benefit the most from the Senate bill are pressuring the House to pass the bipartisan deal without delay.