Montana Aligns With Ten Other States to Challange Dodd-Frank Banking Legislation

This morning, Feb. 14, Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, has joined with Attorneys General in Georgia, Texas Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, and West Virgina in asking to join Michigan, South Carolina and Oklahoma in a court case against the 2010 banking legislation known as Dodd-Frank.

In the official press release, the Attorney General's office argues that Dodd-Frank makes it "difficult for Montanans to obtain loans from community banks" and puts "Montana’s pension investments at risk."

“Dodd-Frank is an alliance of big government and big business – Pennsylvania Avenue subsidizing Wall Street and suffocating Main Street,” says Attorney General Tim Fox. “Montana’s community banks didn’t cause the 2008 financial crisis, but Dodd-Frank punishes them and our citizens who depend on them for credit to purchase a home, start a business, or go to college. It cements the ‘too big to fail’ approach and helps the biggest banks at the expense of consumers.”

Elaborating on the harm that the banks could pose to Montana's pension system, the press release targets the ability of the administration to take over institutions deemed too big to fail and then make executive decisions on which stake holders receive reimbursement and which do not.

"Once taken over, those Montana’s pension funds are invested in companies such as AIG, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and many others, and if the Treasury Secretary seizes any of those companies, Montana no longer has rights to collect under bankruptcy laws. Montana taxpayers could be left with even more liability on top of the current $2 billion gap."

Attorney General Tim Fox: