Tom Carper and White House spar over consumer protection

[SpartanDem]

Hopefully this goes down flames


From NBC's Ali Weinberg
An ideological battle over the balance of state and federal power is pitting the White House against centrist Democrats, as a proposal to limit states' ability to regulate financial transactions makes its way through the Senate.

Today, a senior White House economic adviser and two Democratic attorneys general criticized a bipartisan amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that would limit the ability of state regulators to enforce protection laws on national banks and their subsidiaries, which would remain under the oversight of the federal government's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Diana Farrell told reporters on a conference call that the amendment would have the net effect of weakening the new bill's regulations, as state watchdogs are more acutely sensitive to their local financial environment than are national regulators.

"States are better able to respond to abuses in local markets," Farrell said. "States and state attorneys general are in a unique capacity to understand where the violations are taking place," she continued.

Democratic Attorneys General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Tom Miller of Iowa also criticized the amendment, which is supported by Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (DE), Mark Warner (VA), Tim Johnson (SD) and Evan Bayh (IN), and GOP Sens. Bob Corker (TN) and John Ensign (NV).

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/05/13/2314255.aspx