As Congress debates federal financial reform legislation, a key priority
for financial industry lobbyists remains gutting provisions that would
strengthen enforcement by state attorneys general and stopping the
partial restoration of state powers to regulate national bank abuses
against consumers. As we
detailed three years ago, much of the damage to communities from
subprime lending might have been avoided if the Bush Administration had
not been able to shut down most state anti-predatory lending laws early
in the decade.
