The Financial CHOICE Act in Congress would leave our economy even more vulnerable to Wall Street’s recklessness than before the ’08 crisis. Our members of Congress should vote against it.
According to an article in The CTMirror, the CHOICE Act will “undo dozens of Dodd-Frank regulations” that focus on reforming Wall Street after one of our largest economic recessions. Furthermore, the CHOICE Act attacks the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), “an independent agency created by Dodd-Frank that regulates financial institutions,” by severely limiting its ability to prevent, stop, and hold financial companies accountable for cheating their customers.
The CFPB is the watchdog created by Congress less than six years ago with real teeth to keep Wall Street in check. It is well known for taking the lead in holding Wells Fargo accountable for creating a couple million fake accounts. Furthermore, it has returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million consumers and has processed over a million consumer complaints.
If the CHOICE Act passes, not only will many consumer protection laws be repealed, but the sole independent agency that ensures the protection of consumers will also be severely weakened and, possibly, destroyed.
Julia Zhu lives in New Haven.