Action Alert: Protect Consumers not the Big Banks! Support Elizabeth Warren for Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs strong leadership. That's Elizabeth Warren. As chair of the five-person Congressional oversight panel for the $700 billion bailout fund (TARP), Elizabeth Warren has proven she has the intellectual understanding and fortitude to call the shots as she sees them with the government's bailout of the big banks. She proposed the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now the Bureau has been created by Congress as part of the banking reform bill and she is the most qualified candidate to be chair.
So what's the problem? As the New York Times put it in an editorial calling for her appointment, "The banks don’t oppose Ms. Warren because she doesn’t get it. They oppose her because she does." And it's not just the banks. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is lukewarm about Warren because she is much harder on the financial industry than he is. Some say he is actively opposing her appointment.
President Obama will make the appointment in the very near future. Then the Senate must confirm it. To counter Geithner's influence in the administration, we need key Senate chairs to tell the President they want Elizabeth Warren appointed as chair.
The Blue Ribbon Action:
Please call the Senate offices of key committee chairs and tell them you want Elizabeth Warren appointed.
a. Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Banking Committee, (202) 224-2823
b. Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Finance Committee, (202) 224-2651
Or if you don't have time to call...
Sign our online petition here (and please tell friends you signed!) We'll send the signatures to both senators' offices at the end of this week.
Make the calls and sign on to the petition--let's get bureau leadership that works for the people, not Wall Street insiders. Thank you!
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