Project 2025's Assault on Dodd-Frank: Repealing Titles I, II, and VIII to Resurrect 'Too Big to Fail'
Project 2025 proposes repealing Dodd-Frank Titles I (FSOC), II (Orderly Liquidation Authority), and VIII (financial market utilities oversight). As of mid-2025, these are legislative proposals with no active congressional action, not enacted law.
The Project 2025 blueprint for the Treasury Department wants to tear down the post-2008 financial guardrails that prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown. Repealing Title I would dismantle the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the interagency body that designates systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) — the very firms whose collapse required trillion-dollar bailouts. Title II would eliminate the Orderly Liquidation Authority, the FDIC-run resolution mechanism that ensures a large failing bank can be wound down without taxpayer rescue and without crashing the economy. Title VIII would strip the FSOC of its power to designate financial market utilities — the giant clearinghouses that sit at the center of trillion-dollar derivatives markets. In plain English: the architects of Project 2025 want to hand back the keys to the casino to the same institutions that burned the house down in 2008, removing the only tools regulators have to check their systemic risk.
This is not a technical regulatory tweak; it is a wealth-concentration play. If these titles are repealed, the largest banks would face no special oversight for their size or interconnectedness, and their executives would know that bankruptcy — not an orderly wind-down — is the only option, creating a nightmare scenario where any failure triggers cascading chaos. The distributive consequences are clear: the very biggest financial firms gain an implicit license to grow larger and riskier, while everyone else — workers, small businesses, and communities — absorbs the heightened probability of the next crisis. The richest 1% would benefit from asset-price support and bailout expectations, while Main Street would lose in a crisis. The fiscal impact of a future bailout dwarfs any savings from deregulation. As of now, these provisions remain law. The correct fight is to keep them in place and strengthen FSOC’s mandate to proactively designate nonbank firms like hedge funds and private equity that currently operate in the shadows, as the Biden-era FSOC has already begun to do.
The humanitarian alternative
Instead of repeal, Congress should strengthen FSOC by codifying the Biden-era guidance on nonbank designations (e.g., for private equity and hedge funds) and requiring GAO to conduct a biennial financial-stability cost-benefit analysis of all major regulatory proposals. Rather than merging OCC/FDIC/NCUA, modernize the bank merger review process under EO 14036 to consider financial stability, competition, and community impact. For GSEs, pursue a 'public utility' model with a capped profit rate and explicit guarantee fee, as proposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's 2024 white paper. For the CTA, fix implementation burdens for small businesses by raising the employee threshold to 50 FTEs and providing free compliance software via FinCEN, while maintaining the beneficial ownership database as a critical tool for Treasury sanctions enforcement and tax collection.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Prevent legislation to repeal Dodd-Frank Titles I, II, and VIII Congress must block any bill introduced to repeal FSOC, OLA, or FMU authorities; the administration should publicly commit to vetoing such legislation and work with House Financial Services Committee Democrats to ensure it never reaches the floor.
- Maintain GSE conservatorship and oppose privatization legislation The FHFA and Treasury should continue the current 'dual-track' strategy of incremental reform within conservatorship, issuing a formal statement opposing any bill that would wind down the GSEs without a permanent federal reinsurance backstop.
- Defend the Corporate Transparency Act against repeal efforts The administration should direct FinCEN to appeal the National Small Business United injunction to the 11th Circuit and seek expedited review; Congress should appropriate $50 million for a small-business outreach campaign and compliance assistance portal to address legitimate burden concerns.
- Block merger of bank regulatory agencies The Treasury Secretary should publicly oppose any legislative proposal to merge OCC, FDIC, NCUA, and Fed supervision, and instead direct the agencies to conclude the pending 'interagency data-sharing and coordination' MOU by Q4 2025.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 24: Federal Reserve (pp 738-740)"— 705 — Department of the Treasury Treasury must also seriously evaluate U.S. foreign direct investment in China. Particular focus should be paid to investments in CCP or other state-owned enter- prises, investments that result in technology transfers from the U.S. to China, investments that enhance China’s military capacity, and investments that pose risks to critical U.S. supply chains by sourcing critical components or feedstocks in China. An enhanced reporting system is warranted, and greater legal authority and restrictions are appropriate. IMPROVED FINANCIAL REGULATION One of the priorities of the incoming Administration should be to restructure the outdated and cumbersome financial regulatory system in order to promote financial innovation, improve regulator efficiency, reduce regulatory costs, close regulatory gaps, eliminate regulatory arbitrage, provide clear statutory authority, consolidate regulatory agencies or reduce the size of government, and increase transparency. Merging Functions. The new Administration should establish a more stream- lined bank and supervision by supporting legislation to merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Fede…"