Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday went after Democratic senators who backed a bill that would deregulate many of the country’s major banks.
Despite the measure to roll back critical parts of the Dodd-Frank Act being largely backed by Republicans, a number of Democrats have said they would support the bill. Seventeen Democrats voted on Tuesday to advance the bill.
Warren said these votes make it likely the bill will pass.
“Senate Republicans voted unanimously for the #BankLobbyistAct. But this bill wouldn’t be on the path to becoming law without the support of these Democrats,” Warren tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. “The Senate just voted to increase the chances your money will be used to bail out big banks again.”
The proposed bill would decrease the number of banks that are subject to higher oversight from the government to ensure they can weather a financial shock.
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Under Dodd-Frank, banks with at least $50 billion are subject to the additional scrutiny. The proposed bill would increase that threshold to $250 billion, lowering the number of banks subject to the high level of oversight from 40 to about 12.
Warren said on Tuesday that if this bill is passed, the possibility of another financial crisis would increase.
“People in this building may forget the devastating impact of the financial crisis 10 years ago — but the American people have not forgotten,” she said, according to Mother Jones. “The millions of people who lost their homes; the millions of people who lost their jobs; the millions of people who lost their savings — they remember, and they do not want to turn loose the big banks again.”
Democratic backers have said that the dangers of passing the bill have been overstated and the bill could help community banks compete with Wall Street banks.
A number of the Democrats supporting the bill are facing tough reelection campaigns this year in states that President Trump won in 2016.
Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) have all expressed support for the measure.