CFPA Developments

March 11, 2010

This morning, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) said he will unveil his financial reform proposal on Monday, March 15, without Republican support. According to news reports, Senator Dodd is hopeful that his negotiations with Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) can be worked out so that he can bring a bipartisan bill to the Senate floor. He plans to hold a committee markup on the proposal during the week of March 22.

In the meantime, Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) proponents have stepped up their efforts to bring other entities under the CFPA's jurisdiction. These efforts include circulating a letter on Capitol Hill that the Department of Defense sent Feb. 26 to U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Michael Barr. The letter, signed by Department of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley, summarizes the results of an informal, non-scientific poll of military service personnel regarding their experiences with abusive auto financing practices.

In response, AFSA and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) sent a joint letter today to Secretary Stanley requesting a meeting. In the letter, we reiterated that the industry does not condone the already illegal practices cited in the Feb. 26 letter and has gone to great lengths to protect and help consumers.
 
Our government affairs team hand-delivered a copy of the AFSA-NADA letter to Senator Richard Shelby, the Ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and sent a copy to Senator Dodd.

Read the letter here.