Following the prominent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the industry bailout of First Republic Bank, the renewed debate on banking regulation is likely to dominate the Sunday morning talks shows this weekend.
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed within days of one another last weekend, becoming the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history.
As First Republic Bank appeared to be teetering on the edge, a group of 11 big banks announced on Thursday that they would deposit $30 billion in First Republic in an effort to stabilize the financial system.
The turmoil within the banking system has reignited calls for more stringent banking regulation, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) leading the charge. Warren is set to make the rounds on the Sunday shows this weekend, including ABC’s “This Week,” NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The Massachusetts progressive is pushing to repeal a 2018 law that rolled back regulations put in place in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The law raised the threshold at which banks are subject to increased federal scrutiny from those with $50 billion in assets to those with $250 billion in assets.
All three of the medium-sized banks at issue in the last week — Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank — fell below the $250 billion threshold.
“These bank failures were entirely avoidable if Congress and the [Federal Reserve] had done their jobs and kept strong banking regulations in place since 2018,” Warren said in a New York Times op-ed published on Monday. “S.V.B. and Signature are gone, and now Washington must act quickly to prevent the next crisis.”
Warren, alongside Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), introduced legislation this week to repeal parts of the 2018 law. However, it is likely to run into opposition among Republicans and possibly some Democrats. The 2018 law passed with some Democratic support in both the House and Senate.
House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who is set to join CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, accused “some in Washington” of “advancing their personal agendas” on the issue in a tweet on Thursday.
“It is my responsibility as chair of the Financial Services Committee to get to the bottom of what happened,” he said in an interview with CNN. “Then, we can decide on the path forward. And there are a number of different theories here — there’s a management failure, a supervisory or regulatory theory, a failure of regulation, a failure of law.”
He also pointed to the issue of inflation and rising interest rates. The Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate hikes, levied as part of an effort to tame inflation, appear to have played a role in the recent bank failures.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, similarly urged caution when discussing possible regulation this week. Rounds is set to join NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“It’s better if we get good data first. Let’s not do a knee jerk reaction,” he told Bloomberg on Monday. “Let’s find out what it is that it’s gonna take … Then we can decide whether or not we need to modify anything there and whether or not the regulators actually utilized the data that is being provided right now.”
The potential looming indictment of former President Trump will also likely be a topic of discussion on the Sunday shows circuit this weekend.
Trump suggested in a post on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be arrested next week as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush-money payments that the former president made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
The former president claimed that “illegal leaks” indicated that “the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week” and called for protests to “take our nation back.”
Bragg appears to be nearing an indictment, after he reportedly offered Trump the opportunity to testify before the grand jury in the case. The former president’s attorney said he declined the offer.
Trump’s claims on Saturday elicited an immediate response from Republican lawmakers, who suggested that such a move was “politically motivated” and would constitute an “abuse of power.”
Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Former Vice President Mike Pence; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Warren; Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Warren; Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.); Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.); Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-Calif.)
“Fox News Sunday” — White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby; Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz
Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryon Donalds (R-Fla.); Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.)