Jonathan Riskind: Up at bat, Snowe and Collins balk – but why? – (Portland Press Herald – ME)
December 18, 2011

“Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe say they simply agree with most other GOP senators that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should be changed before the Senate confirms a bureau director. But the Obama administration and consumer advocates say blocking confirmation of a director is simply a back door way to weaken an agency that most Republicans voted against creating in the first place. Collins and Snowe were two of just three Republican senators who helped Democrats pass the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul bill that included the new bureau. ‘There certainly is a contradiction there,’ said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch. ‘The time to raise these objections was before they voted for the bill. The way to raise these objections certainly is not to hold the whole agency hostage.’ Without a director in place, the bureau lacks power over non-bank financial institutions that impact the wallets of millions of Americans, including payday lenders, credit reporting agencies and mortgage servicers. ‘It is a little hard for me to understand because Congress debated, the president signed, they (Collins and Snowe) voted for the bill that included the creation of the bureau as one of its centerpieces,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition that includes consumer and civil rights groups and labor unions. ‘The bureau’s powers are significantly restrained until it has a director in place. So it is kind of going back and trying to undo what was done.’” Click here for more.