Bill Would Create Agency to Protect Consumers from Big Banks
The global financial meltdown demonstrated how vulnerable workers and consumers are to abuses in consumer lending practices and Wall Street’s recklessness. A package of reforms now on the House floor would help protect Americans from a laundry list of risky Wall Street practices from predatory lending to unregulated derivatives.
In a letter to House members, the AFL-CIO urged lawmakers to pass the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173). The letter said, in part:
The bailouts of major banking institutions reinforced the idea that workers and consumers must fight for protections they rightly deserve. Once signed into law, this package of reforms will work together to address the plethora of causes from predatory lending to unregulated derivatives that led to last year’s meltdown.
