Congress re-convenes this week. At the top of its post-election agenda is the FY 2017 budget, which raises the possibility that extraneous policy riders will once again be used in a backdoor effort to undermine financial reforms and the agencies responsible for carrying them out, beginning with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Against that background, more than 300 organizations are calling on members of Congress and the Obama Administration to reject all such riders, and any budget that includes them.
The reforms adopted in response to the 2008 financial and economic meltdown were part of an effort to safeguard consumers and investors and the safety and integrity of our financial system, and to put an end to some of the abusive practices that allow big banks and predatory lenders to generate undeserved wealth at the expense of the real economy and ordinary Americans.
Both candidates promised to do more, not less, to hold Wall Street and the financial industry accountable, because that is what makes sense for our economy, and what overwhelming majorities of Americans want to see.
Congress should not go in the opposite direction, whether it’s through the front door or the back door.