Chamber: voters oppose creating a consumer protection agency

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday released a six-state poll showing that voters overwhelming oppose the creation of a consumer protection agency. 

By a two-to-one margin, voters in Arkansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Montana, Tennessee and Massachusetts prefer that existing agencies ensure consumer protections instead of creating a new entity.  

If a consumer protection agency is needed, nearly three-fourths of respondents want a bipartisan commission to create it and not the Federal Reserve, as proposed in financial reform legislation by Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). 

"The message is clear, American want Congress to get regulatory reform right," said David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the Chamber's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, in prepared remarks. "Voters don't agree that the best way to protect consumers is by creating a $410 million federal agency with unprecedented and unchecked powers."

According to the Chamber, the new agency in Dodd's bill would have the authority to regulate entities far beyond the financial sector. 

Orthodontists that allow their customers to pay over time could fall under the jurisdiction of Dodd's consumer protection agency, the Chamber stated. 

The Chamber has received 220,000 letters opposing the creation of a consumer protection agency like the one proposed by Dodd.