WASHINGTON \u2014 Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.<\/p>\n
One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month \u2014 over the objections of the Treasury Department \u2014 was essentially Citigroup\u2019s, according to e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.<\/p>\n
In a sign of Wall Street\u2019s resurgent influence in Washington, Citigroup\u2019s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee\u2019s 85-line bill. Two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. (Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.)<\/p>\n
The lobbying campaign shows how, three years after Congress passed the most comprehensive overhaul of regulation since the Depression, Wall Street is finding Washington a friendlier place.<\/p>\n
The cordial relations now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank.<\/p>\n
This legislative push is a second front, with Wall Street\u2019s other battle being waged against regulators who are drafting detailed rules allowing them to enforce the law.<\/p>\n
And as its lobbying campaign steps up, the financial industry has doubled its already considerable giving to political causes. The lawmakers who this month supported the bills championed by Wall Street received twice as much in contributions from financial institutions compared with those who opposed them, according to an analysis of campaign finance records performed by MapLight, a nonprofit group.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Wall Street groups also held fund-raisers for lawmakers who co-sponsored the bills. At one dinner Wednesday night, corporate executives and lobbyists paid up to $2,500 to dine in a private room of a Greek restaurant just blocks from the Capitol with Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, Democrat of New York, a co-sponsor of the bill championed by Citigroup.<\/p>\n