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Federal banking agencies are under pressure to delay all rulemakings until after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Republican lawmakers pushed officials from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and Federal Reserve at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday to suspend regulatory proposals at all stages of development until Trump takes office and new appointments have time to review them.

“There are a host of pending rules at your agencies,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), said at the hearing. “Will each of you commit to pausing pending rulemaking and new policy releases until the incoming administration takes office and make new appointment to positions that are, or become, vacant?”

Witnesses responded that proposals that would strengthen capital requirements and set minimum long-term debt obligations for large depository institutions, are “unlikely to be ready” before President Joe Biden’s term ends.

“I expect to work with my new colleagues at the OCC and FDIC in the coming year on those measures, to get their policy input and perspectives,” Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision, said. “On the major rulemakings people are focused on, I plan to wait until my colleagues join me next year.”

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) prodded FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg to suspend a proposal pitched in October 2023 that would require banks with at least $10 billion in assets to build corporate-governance and risk-management programs appropriate for their size and complexity, including for the purpose of meeting their existing anti-money laundering obligations.

Lucas spoke after he and nine other lawmakers urged Gruenberg in a letter Monday to repeal the proposal, which, they argued, “improperly interferes with established state power,” and would “impossibly” require board members and senior managers of banks to confirm that their institution complies with all laws and regulations.

The agencies did not specify which rulemakings they would delay, if any, or whether they would refrain from drafting any new proposals before the end of the current administration.

A few hours after Trump began his first term in January 2017, his administration ordered federal departments and agencies to halt the development or introduction of “any” rules or interpretive guidance pending review.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) cast the current proposed slate of regulations for the financial services industry as politically motivated, and singled out the FDIC’s plan to expand the definition of “deposit broker” for particularly sharp criticism.

“I’m alarmed that we continue to see an onslaught of partisan rules … that will significantly increase costs to banks without commensurate benefits,” Lawler said. “Here you are, astonishingly making every effort to haphazardly jam forward partisan rules at the eleventh hour.”

Though not represented at the hearing, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has rulemakings in the works that will revise customer due-diligence requirements, establish a uniform set of national examination and supervisory priorities, enhance financial intelligence-sharing under the Patriot Act, and update incentives and protections for whistleblowers.

All but one of the proposals trace back to the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020. FinCEN most recently implemented provisions of the legislation in August by extending  AML requirements to investment advisers and beneficial-ownership requirements to real estate professionals.

Two of the lawmakers who pushed for a regulatory pause on Wednesday— Lucas and Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX)—overrode a presidential veto to pass the AML Act as part of a broader defense-budget bill on Jan. 1, 2021, in the waning days of Trump’s first term in office.

Donalds, Lawler and Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN), their colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, entered Congress after its adoption.

Prior to the hearing, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) similarly called on the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and federal banking agencies “to ensure an orderly transition” from Biden to Trump by suspending “any rulemaking and nomination activities.”

Contact Chelsea Carrick at ccarrick@acams.org