Maxine Waters will 'grind down' Trump's deregulatory efforts: Jeb Hensarling
If Democratic Representative Maxine Waters takes over as the next chair of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the housing, banking, insurance and securities industries, she could potentially slow progress on Trump’s deregulatory efforts, according to outgoing Republican chair Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling.
On Tuesday, Democrats won back the House for the first time in eight years, while the Republicans maintained control of the Senate. The future of the House Financial Services Commitee was just one of the issues FOX Business tracked around the midterms.
“I fear that she will use this as a tool to harass the administration, to really grind down the deregulation -- the deregulatory efforts of the administration,” Hensarling, who currently chairs the committee, said to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Monday before the midterm results. “So it’s bad, really bad for economic growth.”
Hensarling added that Waters, a vocal critic of banks and their bailout programs, could create more red tape as the committee’s head.
“My fear is she’ll rubber-stamp subpoenas to all of the appointees of the president in the financial arena and… demand documents and appearances before Congress and really you know -- a harassment effort,” he said.
President Trump in a tweet on Saturday warned voters that a Democratic takeover in the upcoming midterm elections would put Waters in charge of the country’s finances. “Beginning of the end!” he warned.
Waters, during a weekend interview on MSNBC, was asked about Trump’s campaign and said, “The President of the United States of America is placing a target on my back.”
Last week FOX Business’s Charlie Gasparino reported that people close with Waters say she would have a “constructive relationship” with banks and would instead focus on the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The president has kept his campaign promise by cutting regulations across several businesses, including rolling back some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Just last week, the Federal Reserve outlined a proposal that would give some relief to smaller banks, by creating a new set of criteria to decide which large banks are subject to the toughest regulations.