The White House repeated calls for more banking regulations on Thursday, but it did not mention any actions toward a wider bank rescue.
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to strengthen regulations in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank‘s collapse, but specifics haven’t been announced yet.
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“We have seen bipartisan support for a piece of legislation, the Warren/Porter bill, and we appreciate those folks putting their ideas together,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We’re going to look closely at that bill and other regulatory changes as well.”
Jean-Pierre did not announce any immediate action to shore up the banking system. She also repeated accusations that former President Donald Trump was to blame.
“Unfortunately, during the last administration in 2018, some of those regulations that would’ve been incredibly important were rolled back. Congress and regulators must strengthen those rules for larger banks so that this doesn’t happen again,” Jean-Pierre said.
A pair of Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), have introduced legislation to reverse the partial Dodd-Frank Act rollback that Congress approved in 2018.
While progressives have blamed Republicans for the rollback, 17 Senate Democrats voted to approve it, as did 33 Democrats in the House. Republicans have pointed to existing regulations that should have placed a red flag over SVB, arguing that better enforcement was the answer.
Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assured Congress that the banking system was sound.
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Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration is limited in what it can do without action from the legislative branch.
“There’s quite a bit that we can do administratively, but without Congress, we can’t fully deal with this issue,” she said. “We will have more to say on the specific regulatory changes in the next few days.”
