In 2018, McConnell championed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155), fast-tracking a bipartisan banking deregulation bill through the Senate. It passed 67–31 and was signed into law on May 24, 2018.

The bill rolled back key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act — the safeguards put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. Most critically, it raised the threshold for "too big to fail" banks from $50 billion to $250 billion in assets, exempting large regional banks from the strictest federal oversight. It also weakened mortgage lending disclosure rules and reduced stress-testing requirements.

How It Harmed Americans:

The consequences became devastatingly clear in 2023. Silicon Valley Bank ($209B in assets), Signature Bank ($110B), and First Republic Bank ($229B) all collapsed within weeks of each other — the second, third, and fourth-largest bank failures in U.S. history. All three had been freed from strict Dodd-Frank oversight by McConnell's bill. The FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund absorbed billions in losses.

The rollback of mortgage lending rules also weakened fair lending protections for communities of color and exposed more consumers to predatory lending practices. The bill's bipartisan veneer obscured the fact that it was a top priority of Wall Street lobbyists — and McConnell delivered.

Reference List:

S. 2155, Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, 115th Congress (2018)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, "Failed Bank List" and reports on SVB, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank (2023)
Federal Reserve, "Review of the Federal Reserve's Supervision and Regulation of Silicon Valley Bank" (2023)
Americans for Financial Reform, "S. 2155: The Bank Lobbyist Act" (2018)