A case of “That was then; this is now”?
Washington,
May 11, 2011 -
Earlier today, a coalition of liberals groups released a letter claiming a bill (H.R. 1121) putting a bipartisan commission in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is bad for consumers.
It cannot escape notice that these same liberal groups endorsed proposals by Democrats and the Obama Administration in 2009 to put a bipartisan commission in charge of the CFPB.
THAT WAS THEN: June 24, 2009: “Our organizations have strongly endorsed two complementary proposals regarding what should be the agency’s jurisdiction, responsibilities, rule-writing authority, enforcement powers and methods of funding. Earlier this year, Representatives Delahunt and Brad Miller proposed H.R. 1705, which would create a new Financial Product Safety Commission [emphasis added] with jurisdiction over credit, savings and payment products. (Senator Richard Durbin has offered the same proposal, S. 566.) Just last week, President Obama offered a very strong and detailed proposal to create a CFPA with a broad jurisdiction to include not only the above-mentioned products, but also existing fair lending and community reinvestment laws.”
-- Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee of Travis Plunkett, Consumer Federation of America, and Edmund Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG, on behalf of : ACORN, Americans for Fairness in Lending, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumers Union, Demos, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), National Fair Housing Alliance, National People’s Action, Public Citizen
THIS IS NOW: May 11, 2011: “Given all of the unprecedented limits on the CFPB’s ability to act to protect consumers described above, putting a commission in charge would be a debilitating blow to the agency’s ability to do anything in a timely manner.”
-- Letter to Members of Congress from groups including Consumer Federation of America, U.S. PIRG, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumers Union, Demos, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients), National Fair Housing Alliance, National People’s Action, Public Citizen and others
WHY THE FLIP-FLOP? Answer unknown at this time.
