Resolution in Opposition to a Consumer Financial Protection Agency Exposed

The Resolution in Opposition to a Consumer Financial Protection Agency was adopted by ALEC's Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force at the Spring Task Force Meeting, April 23, 2010, and approved by the ALEC Board of Directors on May 4, 2010. ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this piece of legislation after the launch of ALECexposed.org in 2011, but it has done nothing to get it repealed in the states where it previously pushed for it to be made into law.

ALEC Bill Text

WHEREAS, Congress is considering legislation which would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA); and

WHEREAS, the CFPA is a new federal agency that will increase spending and taxes during a time when our nation is running a record deficit; and

WHEREAS, the CFPA will diminish choices for consumers, place burdensome regulations on businesses, place federal mandates on the states, and create a new patchwork of regulations for national banks; and

WHEREAS, the end result of the CFPA will be that many consumers and businesses will be denied access to credit; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote the result of this legislation would be “business closures, fewer startups, and slower growth. Overall this would cost a significant number of jobs;” and

WHEREAS, the CFPA deprives states of the right to continue to regulate industries within their own borders; and

WHEREAS, the CFPA deprives federally chartered institutions of the ability to operate under one coherent set of regulations; and

WHEREAS, David Evans of the University of Chicago and Joshua Wright of George Mason University wrote, “[T]he CFPA would: increase the interest rates consumers pay by at least 160 basis points; reduce consumer borrowing by at least 2.1 percent; and reduce the net new jobs by 4.3 percent;” and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED; that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) opposes the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.