U.S. Chamber Mounts Opposition to So-Called Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Launches Advertising, Media, and Grassroots Campaign to Set the Story Straight

WASHINGTON D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today launched an offensive to highlight the dangerous scope and proposed powers of H.R. 3126, the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) Act. The multi-million dollar campaign will include advertising, media outreach, and grassroots mobilization to inform Americans how the CFPA would place crippling new regulations, increased credit costs, and taxes on dozens of industries, the vast majority of which are unaware they'll be affected.

"The Chamber supports strong consumer protection, but a massive new bureaucracy with sweeping powers that will deprive consumers of affordability and choice is not the answer," said David Hirschmann, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber's Center for Capital Markets. "That is why we're launching a major offensive to inform Americans the CFPA is the wrong answer to consumer protection."

The so-called CFPA would create a sweeping, powerful new government agency to regulate hundreds of thousands of businesses that either directly or indirectly extend credit to their consumers or allow their customers to pay over time, including layaway plans and gift cards. It even seeks to regulate anyone who provides advice to businesses that sell on credit. The proposed regulator would have the ability to determine what products are sold to whom, how they are sold, and at what price.

The Chamber's campaign to "Stop the CFPA" includes an initial inside-the-beltway push with print and online advertising, and it will expand to television and radio advertising and grassroots mobilization throughout the country. In addition to exposing yet another big government proposal, the campaign aims to highlight the myriad of industries that will be harmed by virtue of the fact that they extend credit to their customers.

"The unintended consequences of this bill are jaw dropping," said Hirschmann. "Whether you're a jeweler or a butcher, a retailer or an IT provider, this new agency would have sweeping powers to regulate over 45 industries and add yet another layer of government bureaucracy to an already disjointed and dysfunctional system."

The Chamber's first print ad shows a butcher who lets his customers pay the bill over time. It says the CFPA "would create a new government bureaucracy with sweeping authority that goes far beyond consumer protection. Virtually every business that extends credit to American consumers would be affected – even the local butcher and the credit he extends to his customers." It continues: "CFPA is not consumer protection. It's more big government." The ad urges people to go to the Chamber's new Web site, www.stopthecfpa.com/ and tell Congress "not to make a tough economy even tougher."

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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