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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - January 4, 2010
Wall Street's Fingerprints Evident on Financial Reform Bill
by: Gail Russell Chaddock
The Christian Science Monitor
Congress pledged to tighten regulations on Wall Street
after its role in the recession. The industry is reaching
into its deep pockets to shape the financial reform
legislation to its liking.
Washington - Since the near meltdown of Wall Street in late
2008, Congress has pledged to tighten regulations on the
finance industry. That exercise is now half over, with the
House approving a reform package Dec. 11.
With the Senate poised to take up the issue early in 2010,
the next questions are: How much more money and influence
will the industry expend to try to shape the reform
legislation to its liking, and will it succeed?
Industry spending to sway Congress is hardly news, but the
scale of such activity surrounding this season's finance
overhaul legislation is extraordinary, even for Washington.
"What's astonishing to me is that the special interests
opposing us contributed to the failure of the financial
system. They're trying to preserve the system that failed,
and Congress is listening to them in some respects," says
Ed Mierzwinski, consumer advocate for US PIRG. a public-
interest research group.
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With the American public still reeling over the loss of
trillions in savings and pensions from 2008's financial
fiasco, Wall Street is playing defense ? and there's
evidence that its outsized investment in inside politics
is paying returns.
The industry, with the help of centrist Democrats, won
key concessions ? including limits on the power of a new
consumer protection agency, preemption of state consumer
protection laws, and loopholes in new rules for the $600
trillion derivatives market that helped trigger the crisis
and subsequent recession.
Consumer groups say the industry's campaign contributions
to sitting congressmen influenced these outcomes. The 34
House members who offered amendments to weaken consumer
protections, for instance, collectively received $3.8
million in campaign funds from the financial sector in
2009, according to analysis by Consumer Watch and the
Center for Responsive Politics.
In all, the finance, insurance, and real estate industries
spent a record $475 million on campaign contributions to
congressional candidates in the 2008 cycle and are ramping
up for 2010 midterm elections.
But that's not the extent of it. Besides campaign
contributions, the finance industry ? including companies
that got billions in taxpayer bailout money because they're
"too big to fail" ? spent more than $300 million in 2009
on lobbying to influence the regulatory reforms. Finance
retains nearly five lobbyists for every member of Congress.
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At the heart of the debate over financial regulation is the
fight for consumer protection. Despite its big investment,
the finance lobby lost its bid in the House to derail a
new Consumer Financial Protection Agency with broad powers
to protect consumers from financial products deemed unsafe.
The new agency is the centerpiece of the bill that passed
the House on Dec. 11, 223 to 202.
When centrist Democrats held up a committee vote on the
House Financial Reform bill on Dec. 9, consumer groups
cried foul. The committee bill at that point allowed states
to impose tougher standards for consumer protection than
the federal government does. In opposition, the financial
industry lobbied for a uniform federal standard. At the
11th hour, new Democrats, led by Rep. Melissa Bean (D) of
Illinois, threatened to tie up debate on the bill unless
their provision enabling federal consumer protection laws
to preempt stronger state laws was added to the bill.
"There's a tremendous cost, whether to industry or to
consumers, in having different rules across every state
to do the same mission," said Representative Bean in an
interview.
Consumer groups and state attorney generals counter that
state regulators are an important check on federal
regulators, who did not act soon enough to curb abuses
that produced the financial crisis.
"The meltdown of the financial institution was also a
meltdown of the federal regulators... that had a big part
of this," says Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who worked
with House finance panel staff on this issue. "To foreclose
the states from doing more is wrong and foolish."
The compromise worked out with chairman Barney Frank (D)
of Massachusetts allows federal regulators to preempt a
state law that "materially impairs" the business of a
national bank.
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Attorney General Miller, in an interview, says that
compromise is not too damaging. But "there will clearly
be another fight in the Senate," he adds. "The special
interests will try very hard to gain advantage by keeping
the states on the sidelines in enforcing the laws. We will
fight back as best we can."
Bean dismisses charges from consumer groups that the
$393,000 she received from the financial services industry
in 2009 ? about half her campaign donations to date ?
influenced her stance on the bill. "Agreeing with the
industry on one thing doesn't mean that they influenced
the whole package," she says, adding that she actively
backed many provisions that banks opposed, including the
consumer financial protection agency.
The finance industry also won exemptions to new rules for
the vast derivatives market at the center of the financial
crisis. Reformers wanted all these unregulated trades to
be conducted on public exchanges.
"Thirty percent of the market is completely exempted from
any exchange. It's a huge loophole, and we know that if a
certain type of [hedge fund trader] is exempt from over-
sight, the market is going to gravitate to that to escape
regulation," says Carmen Balber, Washington director for
Consumer Watch.
Two key amendments to close those loopholes were defeated
in floor votes. Commenting on the role of Wall Street
money in affecting these votes, Rep. John Larson (D)
of Connecticut, a cosponsor of an amendment to ban
"abusive derivatives," said: "I would never categorize my
colleagues' votes, but it's another reason why we need
campaign finance regulation." The measure failed 150 to
279.
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