As Congress returns to action this week, with writing new financial regulation atop their to-do list, a new poll (pdf) released today by the Consumer Federation of America found that 62 percent of those polled supported a new consumer financial protection agency. That’s a 5 percent increase from eight months ago. Opposition to the proposed agency decreased from 39 percent to 34 percent over that eight-month period, the poll found. This uptick in support is a boon for the proposed agency, which would protect consumers from predatory lending practices, unfair fees charged by credit card companies and banks, and toxic financial products like no-income-no-job-no-asset mortgage loans. Consumer advocates, like Elizabeth Warren, say the agency is one of the few parts of the Senate’s bill that would directly help American families.
The political support for a tough consumer agency is far from assured, however. While liberal Democrats have favored creating an independent, standalone consumer agency, resembling something like the Environmental Protection Agency, more moderate and conservative lawmakers have sought to chip away at the agency’s independence and limit its rule-writing power. Now back from recess, one of the Senate’s main hurdles on the way to crafting a financial reform bill is deciding the consumer protection agency’s fate. With the bill already passed out of committee, and now set to be debated in the full Senate, there’s sure to be a flurry of amendments offered looking to strengthen or weaken the proposed agency, which, as the bill is now, would be independent but housed within the walls of the Federal Reserve.
