CFPB funding at risk

Elizabeth Warren and the Dodd-Frank Act CFPB do not have many friends among House Republicans, states the Huffington Post. The numbers are beginning to look grim, as the GOP House majority led by Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann and Spencer Bachus have slashed the CFPB budget nearly in half, from $ 143 million to $ 80 million. If the elephants continue to cut away at the consumer protection agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will open on July 21, 2011 with the dubious distinction of being the only federal financial institution regulator that has to abide by politically motivated spending budget cuts.

The CFPB seeks to heal wounds of banking abuses

Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren, co-author of the book "Two-Income Trap," has studied at good length how banking abuses have harmed United States families. The middle class sinks ever deeper into poverty, borrowing just to keep up with expanding bills and compensate for stagnant salaries. Keeping in mind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s goal is important. It wants to use the Federal Register to unite these seven agencies for the federal government:

• Federal Reserve Board of Governors
• Also included is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• The Federal Trade Commissioned is part of this
• The National Credit Union Administration is one of these
• There's the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• The Office of Thrift Supervision is next
• The seventh is the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Until now, none of these agencies had consumer protection as the primary agenda. The personal bankruptcies can be helped by the CFPB that will help the middle class.

"The numbers are sobering," Warren said at a Feb. 23 Chicago lecture. "Since the late 1970s, (personal) bankruptcy filings have doubled and doubled again. Women have been hit particularly hard. Over the course of 20 years, the number of women filing bankruptcy petitions increased by 662 percent. By the early 2000s, a woman was more likely to file for bankruptcy than to graduate from college."

Annual Percentage Rate controlled by CFPB

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to protect against many different problems, states the Customer Federation of The United States. This involves payday advance loan outlets with very high fees, the military loan companies trying to make the 36 percent Annual Percentage Rate cap something they can get around, the high rates and fees that subprime charge cards give and the interest rates that stay fairly high with overdraft loans from banks.

As John Wasik writes for Reuters’ Prism Money blog, customers should be paying attention to what House Republicans try to do to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"I believe everyone with a credit card, bank loan or savings account needs to back Warren now," writes Wasik. "Contact your senators and congressmen and urge them to leave the bureau's funding alone, which is tied directly to the budget of the Federal Reserve."

Articles cited

Consumer Federation of America

consumerfed.org/pdfs/PR-CFA-CFPB-6-months.pdf

Federal Register

edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-23487.pdf

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/ed-mierzwinski/iin-the-public-interesti_b_829659.html

Reuters

blogs.reuters.com/prism-money/2011/02/28/why-elizabeth-warren-needs-your-help-to-police-the-banks/

‘I’m not here to support criminal schemes,’ said Rep. Maxine Waters

youtube.com/watch?v=TUVxcNxULyU