AFR joined 35 other organizations in urging Congress to reject HR 527, the “Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2015” (SBRFIA.) SBRFIA expands the reach and scope of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and would increase unnecessary and lengthy regulatory delays, increase undue influence by regulated industries and encourage convoluted court challenges.
AFR joined 23 organizations in sending a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 50. This legislation would make it even more difficult for agencies to implement laws already enacted by Congress.
AFR and 43 additional organizations sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose any efforts to dismantle, weaken, or change the structure of the CFPB, which was established by Congress to ensure that markets work in an open, transparent, and fair way for consumers. Failure to appropriately regulate the consumer financial marketplace was a central cause of the financial crisis that devastated the U.S. and global economies; the CFPB is a shining success story of the efforts to correct the mistakes and close the gaps that led to that failure. The letter urges members of Congress to support the CFPB in fulfilling its consumer protection mission, rather than undermine it.
AFR sent an updated letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 37, “Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act.” This legislation includes numerous changes that could have significant negative impacts on regulators ability to police the financial markets so that they function safely and transparently.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 185, the “Regulatory Accountability Act.” This legislation would hamstring agencies charged with the oversight of our largest banks by requiring them to comply with a host of additional bureaucratic and procedural requirements designed to make effective action virtually impossible.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to reject HR 26, the “Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.” This legislation contains the inclusion of an irrelevant provision that would weaken financial regulatory protections by banning the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from any oversight of margin and collateral for derivatives transactions with commercial end users.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 37, “Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act.” This legislation includes numerous changes that could have significant negative impacts on regulators ability to police the financial markets so that they function safely and transparently.
AFR’s Policy Director, Dr. Marcus Stanley, provided testimony before the Senate Banking Committee during a hearing on the examining of small depository institutions.
AFR sent a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee today, urging their opposition to a series of anti-CFPB bills being discussed by the committee. The eleven measures under discussion would weaken the CFPB in a variety of ways and make it nearly impossible for the agency to do its job. The bills are part of a continuing pattern to mischaracterize the CFPB’s organization and processes, and if adopted, would harm consumers. The package of legislation being considered also includes a frontal attack on the Bureau’s authority to consider the impact of forced arbitration clauses on consumers—a bill that would eliminate consumers’ access to courts and force them into a rigged and secretive system to settle disputes.
AFR sent a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee to stop interfering in the efforts of FSOC and OFR to collect data essential to analyzing potential systemic risk. The letter also states AFR’s opposition to HR 4387, legislation that could undermine the ability of our financial regulatory system to respond the kind of risks that led to the financial crisis of 2008.