As we previously noted, the House was set to vote on the disapproval of the SEC Resource Extraction Rule under the Congressional Review Act. The joint resolution passed the House by a vote of 235 in favor and 187 against.  Now the Minneapolis StarTribune is reporting that “the Senate used an unusual pre-dawn vote to approve legislation, 52-47, killing a regulation that has required oil and gas companies to disclose payments to the U.S. or foreign governments for commercial development.”  The White House has said it would sign the joint resolution.

So now it is back to the drawing board for the SEC on this Dodd-Frank regulation that does not have much to do with the protection of investors. Given the current climate, one might be tempted to think the SEC won’t act to fast.  But Oxfam America previously sued the SEC and won, claiming the SEC was violating the Administrative Practices Act by dragging its feet.