Impact the Future of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency

We received this information from ALTA about how you can impact the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and thought it important to pass it along.  Many of you have asked how you can become more involved in shaping the potential legislative changes coming our way.
 
Congress is recessing for the summer and members will be visiting with constituents on a host of issues.  See the easy links below to find out where your Representatives are holding town hall meetings.  We hope you plan to attend a town hall in your area to have your questions answered and make your voice heard.  ALTA has also provided  important discussion points for your reference while there.  For more information on the CFPA, see our recent blog posts on this issue.
 
(View the below message from ALTA's Grassroots Action Alert page here)
 
Attend a Town Hall Meeting and Meet with Your Congressional Representatives on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009 (H.R. 3126).
  
Dear ALTA Grassroots Advocate,
 
Big legislative issues are often won or lost over the August recess.  The Obama Administration kicked up a firestorm on June 30 when it proposed creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to "promote transparency, simplicity, fairness, accountability, and access in the market for consumer financial products or services."
 
The reality is that a new federal agency will be given unprecedented power to write and enforce rules for all consumer financial products and services and the individuals that provide them.  This means you.  Settlement services providers, abstracters, attorneys, title insurers and potentially real estate appraisers, pest inspectors, surveyors and others who are part of a mortgage closing transaction are swept under the new agency.
 
Some elements of the plan make sense, like combining existing authority under RESPA and TILA into a single regulator.  However, the CFPA powers are so broad that they conflict with existing state regulation of the title industry.  ALTA strongly believes that CFPA authority should be limited to existing authority as spelled out under RESPA and TILA.
 
We need to make our concerns heard, which means that it is in the interest of everyone employed by the title industry to attend a town hall meeting and set up individual visits with your Members of Congress over recess.
 
Congress needs to hear from the land title industry.  Everyone who is employed by the title industry should attend a town hall meeting near their home and meet with their Congressional representatives or their staff during the month of August.
 
TAKE ACTION NOW!
 
Click here to find an upcoming town hall meeting in your state or district.
 
Click here to find and contact your elected representatives to set up a meeting to express your concern about the CFPA.  Enter your zip code and click on your Representative's photo.  Then, click on the tab that says "contact."
 
Click here for a one-pager with talking points and information on the scope of CFPA's powers.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me, Justin Ailes at justin@alta.org or (202) 261-2937 or Alyssa Marois at alyssa@alta.org or (202) 261-2935 with any questions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Kurt Pfotenhauer
CEO