The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Not Yet Open and Already Under Attack

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Not Yet Open and Already Under Attack
Marlys Harris (MarketWatch)
June 25, 2011
―The other day, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the Center for Responsible Lending had spent$96.000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2011 compared with $130,000 in the last quarter of 2010. In case you didn‘t know, CRL, a non-profit advocacy organization, backed — and continues to support — the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. … Well, when I saw Businessweek’s report on the Center for Responsible Lending, I decided to take a look at the money. In the consumer‘s corner, you have the Center for Responsible Lending with its $96,000 lobbying budget. You can add in another $50,000 from Consumers Union, $10,000 from the Consumer Federation of America and less then $5,000 from the National Association of Consumer Advocates. (These totals by the way come from the Secretary of the Senate which requires lobbyists to file reports every three months.) Another group, Americans for Financial Reform, which is composed of some 250 organizations favoring the Financial Bureau, includes some important players, including AARP, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State Municipal and County Employees and SIEU, another union. Americans for Financial Reform has no lobbying budget. …Even if all these folks devote, say, 15 percent to fighting the Financial Bureau, they have $3.65 million or seven times as much money as the pro-consumer guys. And, of course, I haven‘t added in the millions in contributions made to politicians by the financial services industry — about $3.5 million last year or nearly $880,000 a quarter. So what chance do you think the Finance Bureau has of becoming a strong and effective voice for consumers? I did the math. You draw the conclusions. Click here for more.