Congressional Opponents of Consumer Financial Protection Bill Got Big Money from Wall Street Interests

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Big Finance seems to have friends on the House Financial Services Committee.

On Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 3126, which would create a new executive branch agency to oversee consumer financial protections and is known as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act.

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Opponents of the legislative proposal received an average of 20 percent more in contributions from financial interests over the past two-and-a-half years than the bill’s supporters, a Center for Responsive Politics review has found.

The Center found that $527,500 is the average amount a committee member who voted “no” received from these financial groups’ PACs and employees. The average amount a member who voted “yes” received was $438,900.

All but two Democrats — Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Rep. Walter Minnick (D-Idaho) — voted in favor of the measure, while all but one Republican voted against it.

Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.), who is running for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden, was the sole Republican to support the bill.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the committee’s chairman, is the bill’s lead sponsor. The final roll call was 39-29. Committee members Reps. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas), Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) and Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.) were absent and did not vote.

Between January 2007 and June 30, committee members who supported the bill collected $17 million from the finance, insurance and real estate sector. This includes contributions to lawmakers’ campaign committees as well as leadership PACs.

By contrast, lawmakers who opposed the bill raised $15 million from the finance, insurance and real estate sector during this two-and-a-half year period.

For the full chart, see https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/10/congressional-opponents-of-con.html

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