On Tuesday, October 18, Lauren Willis and Chris Byrnes will debate the validity of the arguments used to justify or undermine Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act. There is controversy over the inclusion of this provision in a bill meant to prevent another financial collapse, and disagreement over whether it will achieve its stated goals.
Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires several federal agencies, including each of the Federal Reserve banks, to "establish an Office of Minority
and Women Inclusion." The directors of these offices are tasked with assessing the diversity policies and practices of the entities regulated by the agency, increasing the participation of women and minority contractors with each agency, and establishing standards of diversity for the workforce and senior management of each agency. There is controversy over the inclusion of this provision in a bill meant to prevent another financial collapse, and disagreement over whether it will achieve its stated goals.
Chris Byrnes is a senior attorney with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and was formerly an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
Lauren Willis is a professor of law at Loyola Law School, and lectures on regulation of the U.S. home mortgage market, predatory lending, financial literacy education, behavioral decision making, and a variety of consumer law topics.
The debate will be moderated by SLS's own Professor Richard Banks