The new financial reform legislation passed by the House of
Representatives on Friday is an important step towards protecting
consumers and taxpayers from reckless financial practices, according to
U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a national consumer organization
and OSPIRG, the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group.
The
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, H.R. 4173, approved by
a vote of 223-202, establishes a new independent Consumer Financial
Protection Agency (CFPA), reins in the ability for banks and investment
firms to get “too-big-to-fail” and then needing massive taxpayer
bailouts, opens, for the first time, the Federal Reserve to public
oversight, and creates accountability for hedge funds and other
previously unregulated players that were central causes of the economic
meltdown one year ago.
Oregon’s congressional delegation was
split on the final passage, with Congressmen Walden and Schrader voting
against H.R. 4173 and Congressmen Wu, DeFazio and Blumenauer voting for
it.
“The House has taken critical steps to protect consumers
and taxpayers from another financial collapse brought on by reckless
and predatory practices and a regulatory system that failed,” said Ed
Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Protection Director on Friday.
“Defeat of the banks’ efforts to get rid of the game-changing Consumer
Financial Protection Agency was a key vote,” he said.
Mierzwinski’s
colleague, Tax and Budget Analyst Nicole Tichon, also applauded the
House vote. “No longer will the Federal Reserve operate as an arrogant,
secretive government unto itself,” Tichon said. “By including
legislation that would assure more transparency at the Fed, lawmakers
stood up for the taxpayers, not for backdoor bailouts and big banks.”
“The
public is angry about the mess created by Wall Street and the bailouts
they took,” added Gary Kalman, federal lobbying office director for
U.S. PIRG. “This bill takes major steps towards reining in the
dangerous and deceptive practices that got us into the crisis.”
Financial
industry groups opposed many aspects of H.R. 4173, and their lobbying
and work behind the scenes left some of their marks on the bill. U.S.
PIRG and its allies in the Americans for Financial Reform coalition
will have to work hard to assure the interests of Main Street trump
Wall Street in the final version of financial reform legislation as it
makes its way through the U.S. Senate.
For example, Mierzwinski
noted, the banks were able to weaken the CFPA to preserve the
preemption of some state legislative and attorney general authority
over national banks by reinstating federal law as a floor, not ceiling
of protection. U.S. PIRG and allies will also work to strengthen the
oversight and accountability of speculative trading in derivatives.
# # #
OSPIRG
is a leading non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy
organization that takes on powerful interests on behalf of its members.
On the web at OSPIRG.org. OSPIRG is a founding member of Americans for
Financial Reform, comprised of over 200 of the nation’s leading
consumer, civil rights, senior, labor and investor protection groups
(ourfinancialsecurity.org).
U.S. PIRG, the federation of
state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan
public interest advocacy organization.
For more information
on U.S. PIRG’s campaigns to improve Financial Security, click here.
Read Ed Mierzwinski’s U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog and sign up for the RSS
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