The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, S. 2155, will likely come up for a vote on the Senate floor "in the next few weeks," according to Jared Roscoe, senior banking counsel for Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
"Seems like there's a lot of desire on both sides of the aisle to take this up," Roscoe told state treasurers Tuesday at the National Association of State Treasurers Legislative Conference in Washington. There's "appetite to move this [bill] along," he said.
Introduced last November by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the bipartisan legislation, according to the committee, "right-sizes regulation for smaller financial institutions and includes important consumer protections for veterans, senior citizens and victims of fraud."
Joe Torsella, Pennsylvania State Treasurer — who moderated the panel that included Roscoe — noted that a "key priority" for NAST is the designation of municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets (HQLAs).
Roscoe noted one of the "key pieces" of S. 2155 is the HQLA provision allowing large banks to count some of their municipal bond investments, including tax-exempt housing bonds, as high-quality liquid assets under federal bank liquidity standards.
Roscoe noted that the bill now has 12 Democratic co-sponsors and more will be added "in the near future."