A growing number of congressional Democrats are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) proposed rules for payday lenders, cautioning that they could hurt consumers, the Washington Times reported on Saturday. The CFPB proposed new rules this spring that seek to regulate payday lenders frequently used for banking services by minorities, the poor and the elderly who need short-term emergency loans. The Obama Administration and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have accused the payday lending agency of engaging in predatory lending and seek to impose sweeping regulations across all lenders. But a growing number of Democrats, including Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz who heads the Democratic National Committee, are challenging the new rules as a bad example of a “one-size-fits-all” policy that will limit consumers’ banking choices. In a bipartisan letter sent to the agency on Saturday, a handful of lawmakers included Ms. Schultz, Florida Reps. Alcee Hastins and Corrine Brown, and Calif. Reps. Jim Costa and Tony Cardenas. “We are concerned that individuals who rely on the availability of short-term and small-dollar loans to make ends meet will be forced to turn to more expensive alternatives potentially resulting in a phenomenon that is hardly the financial protection that the CFPB seeks to accomplish through this regulatory scheme,” the 28 lawmakers, including 16 democrats and 12 Republicans wrote in the letter.
