The Federal Financial Forum

The  Small Business  Coaltion for Regulatory Relief  has identified an important component of the Dodd-Frank bill which could play a substantial role  in “regulating the regulators” .  Here  is report written by the Coalition.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law last week by President Obama.  The law contains a provision designed to lessen the negative impact on small business caused by a flood of federal mandates from the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  The Small Business Fairness and Regulatory Transparency Amendment authored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) does two things:

By Katherine Hobson

Most provisions of the law will be phased in over several years, though some — including coverage for adult children up to age 26 and an end to the exclusion from coverage of kids with pre-existing conditions — kick in tomorrow. (Many people will see those changes when they go through the open enrollment period for next year’s coverage.)

Consumer protection adviser Elizabeth Warren said part of her job will be to create a set of rules not just for consumers, but for small lenders to compete against big banks and other institutions.

“We’ve got folks who want to play by a clean set of rules competing against folks who don’t,” Warren said in a speech to a meeting of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions in Washington.

“The job of regulation is not only to level the playing field between consumers and the lender, it’s often to level the playing field among the lenders so that everybody is competing on a straight-up basis,” Warren told the group.

All federal rulemakings are subject to the Five Governors of the Regulatory State, each of which was either developed or initially implemented by a member of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness.

 For additional information please contact  Jim Tozzi  at CRE  202.265.2383 or tozzi@thecre.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two Democratic senators are demanding more transparency about premium increases from health insurers and warning them against blaming higher rates on a newly passed reform law.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller of West Virginia said they sent a letter to the five largest health insurers by enrollment registering their concerns over increases for next year.

The letters were sent to WellPoint Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc, Aetna Inc, Health Care Services Corp and Cigna Corp.