WASHINGTON — Former Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said Monday that he will retire when his term expires at the end of 2022.
The Alabama Republican served two separate stints as head of the committee, first from 2003 until 2007, and then again from 2015 to 2017.
“I have strived to influence legislation that will have a lasting impact — creating the conditions for growth and opportunity,” Shelby said in a press release. “I have two good years remaining to continue my work in Washington. I have the vision and the energy to give it my all.”
Shelby is the second senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee to announce he will not seek reelection in 2022. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the current ranking member of the committee, said in October that he will retire from the Senate as well.
Bloomberg News
Shelby has been a reliable voice in the Senate against government intervention in the financial services industry.
He opposed the bank bailout in 2008 and introduced legislation in 2015 to substantially roll back the Dodd-Frank Act. The legislation would have narrowed the scope of the Federal Reserve’s new supervisory powers for large banks by raising the asset threshold for “systemically important” banks from $50 billion to $500 billion. The threshold was ultimately raised to $250 billion in the 2018 regulatory relief law authored by Shelby’s successor as chairman, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.
Shelby was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat, but switched parties in 1994.
