AFR’s Heather Booth was quoted in this AP article.  Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — What to do about the size of too-big-to-fail banks? Order a study. How to hold stockbrokers accountable for their dealings with clients? Another study. How to ensure the reliability of credit rating agencies? Study that, too.

Time after time as Congress wrestled with contentious decisions on how to re-regulate the nation’s financial industry, it opted for what often is the classic Washington punt: further study. In all, the 2,300-page overhaul of financial regulations requires more than 60 such studies, on everything from examining the presence of shoddy Chinese drywall in foreclosed houses to judging the financial literacy of U.S. consumers.

“Studies can often be used as a way to delay, and can be a way for the money of the biggest banks to still have influence and undermine real accountability,” said Heather Booth, campaign director for a coalition of labor and consumer activists called Americans for Financial Reform.

“They can also be used to provide thoughtful guidance for action,” she added, “and it can be used to reinforce the hand of regulators who want to rein in reckless activity.”