"Senate banking committee Chairman Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) has discussed jettisoning plans for a standalone Consumer Financial Protection Agency, as part of an effort to secure bipartisan support for legislation to reform financial regulation, said people familiar with the matter."
"One possibility raised during recent talks between Dodd's staff and Republican counterparts would be to assign new consumer protection powers to another agency. Such a compromise might offer an opportunity for Dodd to preserve the goal of expanding safeguards while appeasing Republicans who have chafed at any suggestion of a new agency."
"If there's a bipartisan deal, that's likely how it's going to come out," said one Democratic aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the discussions.
"President Obama proposed last June the creation of an agency to protect consumers against abuses in mortgages, credit cards and other forms of lending."
"It's not clear how dropping the idea of a separate agency would eliminate the differences between the two sides. The fundamental goal of consumer advocates is to separate consumer protection from banking regulation, giving consumer regulators autonomy to write and enforce laws even over the objection of banking regulators. The industry, conversely, wants banking regulators to retain both responsibilities. If the Senate takes a different approach, both sides said the details would determine whether they can live with the compromise."
"This is the litmus test about whether Congress is serious in their efforts to overall financial regulation," said Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America. "If they can't take consumer protection out of the hands of regulators who failed" at that task before, he added, "then they're not really serious about doing things differently than in the past."
"Heather Booth, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of nearly 200 consumer, labor and civil rights organizations, on Friday urged Dodd "not to cave to the big banks and their armies of lobbyists."
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http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?r... This is about providing some protection to consumers from the increasgly predatory actions of the financial services industry. Banks are running wild, taking advantage of less well off customers to charge outrageous fees and penalties. Much of which would be criminal were it not for the fact that the regulation that used to protect consumers in this regard has been wiped out. This bill is really less about creating a seperate agency, and more about restoring consumer protections.
How does it help the democrats, and by extension the middle class and the vast majority of their supporters, to constantly sell out ideals for the elusive goal of "bipartisanship?" Bipartisanship may be a means, but should not be the all encompassing end the democrats are making it out to be.
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Saturday, January 16th 2010 at 5:18PM
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