Oppose Snowe-Pryor #3883 Regulatory “Flexibility” Act

Adds Delays And Red Tape, Encourages Wasteful Litigation

May 13, 2010

United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

We write on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, an unprecedented coalition of over 250 national, state and local groups who have come together to reform the financial industry.  Members of our coalition include consumer, civil rights, investor, retiree, community, labor, religious and business groups as well as Nobel Prize-winning economists.  We support a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and oppose weakening amendments to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, S. 3217.

Snowe-Pryor Amendment #3883 is a misguided attempt to help small business.   The amendment purports merely to require the agency to consider the impact of its rules on small businesses.  But in fact it would needlessly delay CFPB rules by months and create gratuitous opportunities for industry to tie up the agency in court.

The ordinary rulemaking process provides ample opportunity for all stakeholders, including both small and large businesses, to make their views known to the agency and to hear the agency’s responses.  It also permits affected parties to sue the agency to invalidate a rule if the agency gave inadequate notice or opportunity to comment, or if the agency acted arbitrarily or exceeded its authority in writing the rule.  Businesses are adept at taking advantage of these opportunities, both individually and through trade associations, and need no more assistance in guarding their interests.

In fact, the delays created by Snowe-Pryor Amendment #3883 would hurt small business owners, who depend heavily on credit cards to finance their businesses and therefore would benefit from prompt, effective CFPB rules.

Snowe-Pryor Amendment #3883 would provide extra layers of bureaucracy, more red tape, and more litigation, harming small businesses and providing no benefit to the public.  We urge you to oppose it.

For information, please contact David Arkush at (202) 454-5130 or darkush@citizen.org.

Sincerely,

Americans for Financial Reform

See a list of AFR Partners here.

All the organizations support the overall principles of AFR and are working for an accountable, fair and secure financial system. Not all of these organizations work on all of the issues covered by the coalition or have signed on to every statement.