President Obama Announces Initiatives to End Excessive Oil Speculation Responding to high gasoline prices, President Obama outlined a plan last week to reduce the excessive oil speculation that is a key contributor to high prices. Earlier this month, CFA Research Director Mark Cooper participated in a press briefing with Americans for Financial Reform in which … Continued

Congress Approves Anti-Investor JOBS Act Despite strong opposition from current and former securities regulators, capital markets experts, institutional investors, securities law experts, and public interest organizations, the House gave final approval last week to H.R. 3606, the JOBS Act, legislation that rolls back investor protections in the name of creating jobs.  The administration actively pushed … Continued

House Passes Anti-Investor JOBS Act As expected, the House of Representatives approved the JOBS Act (H.R. 3606) last week with strong bipartisan support despite growing expressions of opposition from investors, seniors, unions, and securities law experts.  Backed by the Administration, the bill packages together a number of measures that purport to ease access to capital … Continued

Consumer Groups Support Fuel Economy Standard Increase CFA and 23 consumer groups filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week in support of the Administration’s proposal to increase fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  The submission included an analysis by CFA Research Director … Continued

“Robo-Signing” Settlement Announced The Department of Justice, HUD and nearly all the state attorneys general announced last week that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle a more than year-long investigation into so-called “robo-signing” and other servicer violations of their responsibilities to homeowners.  Since the financial crisis began, an estimated 4 million owners … Continued

Auto Insurance Practices Deny Economic Opportunities to LMI Households The auto insurance marketplace denies important economic opportunities, especially those related to employment, to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, according to a study released yesterday by CFA.  The study, which was undertaken by CFA Executive Director Stephen Brobeck and Director of Insurance J. Robert Hunter with support from … Continued

With Cordray Appointment, CFPB Gains Expanded Authority In a move that won enthusiastic cheers from the consumer community, President Obama used his recess authority to appoint former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Senate Republicans had kept the nomination on hold for months by refusing to consider … Continued

Guide Helps Consumers Get the Auto Insurance Settlement They Deserve Filing an insurance claim can involve lots of paperwork and procedures.  Knowing what steps to take (and keeping good records) is the best way to insure that your claim is settled fairly.  To help consumers through that often intimidating process, CFA has released a new … Continued

House Advances Bills that Would Undermine Federal Consumer Protections The House passed two bills last week and has begun consideration of a third to impose new burdens of federal regulators that seek to protect consumers from unsafe food, predatory financial products and schemes, and dangerous consumer products.  In a letter to the House prior to … Continued

Military Families Need Fully Operational Consumer Financial Protection Bureau With abusive practices that affect military families continuing to mount, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing earlier this month to highlight the problem.  CFA released information in conjunction with the hearing on a number of financial practices that harm military families and that the Consumer … Continued

CPSC Votes to Implement Independent Safety Testing of Children’s Products The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3-2 last month to adopt independent third-party testing rules for domestic manufacturers, importers and private labelers of children’s products.  Under the rules, which include a framework regarding periodic testing to ensure continued compliance, firms will be required to test … Continued

Wall Street’s Oil Speculation Clobbers Main Street’s Consumers The oil price spike of the past year, which saw gasoline prices increase by over a dollar from the summer of 2010 to the summer of 2011, will drive household expenditures on gasoline to a record average of $2900 this year, according to a new analysis released … Continued

CFPB Seeks Information on Financial Products Targeted at Military Personnel Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a call for information regarding financial products and services that are offered to and used by military servicemembers and their families.  In a comment letter filed with the agency last week, CFA described findings of its … Continued

USDA Declares Additional E. Coli Strains as Adulterants The Obama Administration announced last week that it is adding six strains of E. coli to the list of pathogenic strains prohibited in ground beef, a step CFA and others have been urging for years.  Industry has six months to make changes in their safety controls before … Continued

USDA Urged to Declare Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella an Adulterant In the wake of a recent outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg in which at least 107 people in 31 states were sickened and one person died, the Safe Food Coalition has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to declare certain strains of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella as … Continued

Administration Makes Fuel Economy Increase Official Nearly lost in last week’s coverage of the debt ceiling crisis was the official announcement by the White House that it had reached agreement on a plan to raise the average fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Under the new standards, fuel … Continued

Financial Reform is On Track but Remains at Risk One year after enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, federal financial regulators have made great strides implementing its sweeping reforms, according to a progress report issued this week by CFA. That progress is threatened, however, by the unrelenting efforts of industry … Continued

56 MPG Fuel Economy Standard by 2025 Good for Consumers and Automakers With the Obama Administration poised to make a decision on extending fuel efficiency requirements to 2025, CFA released an issue brief two weeks ago arguing that the “scenario of a five percent per year increase to 56 mpg is the lowest level at … Continued

Consumer Protection Funding Cuts Would Be “Devastating” As the House Appropriations Committee prepared to mark up the financial services appropriations bill this week, CFA urged the committee members to avoid devastating cuts to consumer protection from unsafe financial and consumer products alike. In a statement issued in advance of the scheduled markup, CFA Legislative Director … Continued

House Panel Votes to Cut Food Safety Funding The House Appropriations Committee approved a 2012 agriculture funding bill (H.R. 2112) last week that makes dramatic and dangerous cuts to food safety funding. The House bill would cut the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety program by $87 million below FY 2011 funding levels and would … Continued

Rising Gas Costs Drive Support for Tough Fuel Economy Standards The vast majority of Americans are concerned about gasoline prices (85 percent), think it is important to reduce oil consumption (87 percent), and believe it is important to increase fuel economy standards (75 percent), according to a survey released last week by CFA. The survey, … Continued

House Panel Votes to Weaken New Consumer Agency The House Financial Services Committee approved three bills last week designed to undermine the ability of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to stop abusive financial practices by significantly increasing the ability of financial regulators to block important consumer protection measures initiated by the CFPB, by … Continued