Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Of 2009

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Mr. ELLISON. Madam Chair, let me thank the chairman and ranking member, but also let me remind our colleagues that we are not here by accident. We are here because over the course of several years, lax regulation and failure, and inadequacy of law landed us at a point where we have seen over 2 million homes in foreclosure in this year alone. By September 2008, the average housing price had declined by over 20 percent since 2006. That's real wealth from families. More than 60 percent of subprime loans went to people who could have qualified for lower cost. And nearly one in four U.S. borrowers currently owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth.

This, in large measure, happened, Madam Chair, because mortgage brokers, unregulated, lured families with low teaser-rate interest rates that later skyrocketed to unaffordable levels, hidden fees, and charges in incomprehensible terms and conditions that brought on the housing crisis and undermined the financial system.

I want to rise in favor of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which includes a strong consumer financial protection regulation. One of the most important causes of the financial crisis, as I mentioned, is the utter failure of consumer protection. The most abusive and predatory lenders were not federally regulated, were not regulated at all in some cases, while regulation was overly lax for banks and other institutions that were covered.

To address this problem, I believe we need a new agency dedicated to consumer financial protection, a consumer financial protection agency, one agency, not a bunch, one, one that takes the interests of the consumer and puts them first. Not, let's work in the consumer. Not let's see what we can do for the consumer when we get to it, but the interests of the consumer up front.

Such an agency, as contemplated in this legislation, would have the power to stop unfair, deceptive, and abusive financial products and services. It would also require financial institutions to provide concise, clear and easy-to-understand disclosures on the terms and conditions of consumer credit products.

Of course, there are some who would like to keep the same regulators on the job and thereby piece together shards of a broken system. But what we need is real reform to protect not only the individual consumer but our economy as a whole.

Right now, many people are fighting tooth-and-nail to weaken and eliminate the consumer financial protection proposal, spending millions of dollars on a scare campaign that spreads false claims about the agency. But how can they do this in light of the over 2 million foreclosures we have seen? Consumers all across America can't afford what these lobbyists are selling to certain Members of our body.

The sale of risky and irresponsible credit products has cost over 10 million jobs and 2 million homes. We can't afford to lose any more, and that is why we need a consumer financial protection agency that is the cornerstone of any real regulatory reform.

Now this bill, Madam Chair, is comprehensive. It talks about derivatives, credit rating agencies, and executive compensation, and it ends bailouts.

Make no mistake about it: it is protection of the consumer, the average person purchasing a financial product that is the cornerstone of this financial legislation; and it is why I urge my colleagues to support it.

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