FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2011
CONTACT: John Carey at 202-466-1854
john@ourfinancialsecurity.org
AFR Statement on Efforts to Block Any CFPB Nominee
Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national and state organizations working together for strong Wall Street reform, issued the following statement today:
Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform:
“Forty-four US Senators have now signed a letter to President Obama declaring that they will not support any nominee as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unless the CFPB is dramatically weakened.
They are essentially declaring that they want to keep the CFPB from doing its job: standing up for consumers in the financial marketplace.
Deceptive and abusive mortgage lending – allowed to continue by the existing regulators – was a fundamental cause of the financial crisis, and of the worst recession since the Great Depression. In response, Congress created the consumer bureau – so we will have a cop on the beat with fair play and the public interest as its first priority. These 44 Senators want to reverse that progress, and insist on changes that would make it impossible for the CFPB to do its job.
Under current law, the bureau will be accountable to the American people, to Congress, the Judiciary, and the President. It will have sufficient freedom of action to be effective, but it is also already more constrained – by oversight from other regulators and by special review by small business representatives – than any other financial agency. If the signers of this letter got their way the CFPB would be put back under the thumb of the regulators who failed to stand up for consumers so spectacularly the last time. It would be doomed to failure before it even began.
President Obama’s leadership was vital to the creation of the Consumer Bureau, and we urge the President to stand up to this bullying, to swiftly nominate Professor Warren to lead the Consumer Bureau, and to make a recess appointment if the Senate refuses to act.”
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