House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) on June 25 submitted an amendment to a spending bill that would that kill the SEC’s Reg Best Interest and related Regs. Specifically, the proposed amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2020 -- H.R. 3351 -- provides: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Securities and Exchange Commission to implement, administer, enforce, or publicize the final rules and interpretations of the Securities and Exchange Commission titled ‘Regulation Best Interest: The Broker-Dealer Standard of Conduct’ (File No. S7-07-18) published May 9, 2018; ‘Commission Interpretation Regarding the Solely Incidental Prong of the Broker-Dealer Exclusion to the Definition of Investment Adviser,’ (Release No. IA-5249) published June 5, 2019; ‘Form CRS Relationship Summary; Amendments to Form ADV’ (File No. S7-08-18) published June 5, 2019; and ‘Commission Interpretation Regarding Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers’ (File No. S7-07-18) published June 5, 2019.” The House on June 25th approved by a mostly party-line 227-200 vote the Waters amendment, which will now be part of H.R. 3351 when it is taken up by the full House when it returns from its July break.
(ed: *Well, that would be a showstopper! **UPDATE: This bill, indeed, passed the House and was awaiting Senate consideration after being tucked into an appropriations bill. It would have become law, presumably, were it not for a budget compromise between the President and the House and Senate leaders. As part of the compromise, it was agreed that no end-runs would be attempted that could alter the nature of the compromise; that agreement doomed the Waters bill.)
