A Fighting Chance

that day was eighty-nine pages long: See “Financial Regulatory Reform; A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation,” http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Documents/FinalReport_web.pdf.

written fairly and enforced vigorously: The original name proposed by the White House for the agency was the “Consumer Financial Protection Agency,” and its mission would be “protecting consumers in the financial products and services markets.” The administration intended for the new CFPA to be a stand-alone agency with “an independent seat at the table in our financial regulatory system” and for the CFPA to end the practice of a bank’s being “able to choose its supervisor based on any consideration of real or perceived differences in agencies’ approaches to consumer protection.” “Financial Regulatory Reform; A New Foundation,” 55–57.

two hundred groups would join the cause: AFR is a nonprofit coalition that today includes more than 250 civil rights, consumer, labor, business, investor, faith-based, and civic and community groups dedicated to laying the foundation for a strong, stable, and ethical financial system. I am deeply grateful to AFR and its member organizations for the absolutely critical role they played in the fight for the consumer agency. Heather Booth put the group together, with Lisa Donner as her deputy, and, after Dodd–Frank was adopted, Lisa became the full-time director. Two of the deans of the consumer movement who helped AFR and put their own considerable muscle behind adoption of the consumer agency were Travis Plunkett at Consumer Federation of America and Ed Mierzwinski of PIRG. They not only brought considerable skill and experience to the fight, they also inspired others to venture into the area of consumer finance. For more information, see http://ourfinancialsecurity.org.

While it is impossible to list all of the groups that played a role, I want to particularly acknowledge the contributions in this fight of AARP, AFL-CIO, American Family Voices, AFSCME, American Sustainable Business Council, Americans United for Change, Business for Shared Prosperity, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for Media and Democracy, Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Corporation for Enterprise Development, Demos, Greenlining Institute, Hastings Group, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, MoveOn.org, NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Consumer Law Center, National Consumers League, National Council of La Raza, National Fair Housing Alliance, National People’s Action, National Urban League, PICO National Network, Public Citizen, Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), Roosevelt Institute, SEIU, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, USAction, and the other members of AFR that worked so hard.

They worked their hearts out: For example, the National Consumer Law Center, which was one of the premier consumer advocacy groups, supporting litigation and policy research on a range of issues, including student loans, foreclosures and debt collection, took up the fight. They provided terrific papers and analysis of the need for a consumer agency.

and Dan said yes: The Roosevelt Institute jumped into the financial reform debates with amazing speed and with some really smart people. The Institute quickly became a hub of activity, a place to find first-rate research or to meet with other experts. Under the leadership of Andrew Rich, the Institute was one of the key partners in sensible financial reform.

had worked for a member of Congress: It is common practice for former Members of Congress, congressional staffers, and other government officials to leave government service for lobbying firms. As of 2010, the six biggest banks had hired 243 lobbyists who once worked in the federal government, including 33 who had worked as chiefs of staff for members of Congress and 54 who had worked as staffers for the Senate or House banking committees. See Kevin Connor, “Big Bank Takeover: How Too-Big-to-Fail’s Army of Lobbyists Has Captured Washington,” Institute for America’s Future (2010), http://ourfuture.org/files/documents/big-bank-takeover-final.pdf.