Letter: Financial watchdog protects all of us

The current banking crisis underscores the imperative to have strong, independent oversight over our financial system. Yet on the heels of that crisis, the only government watchdog that exists to protect Americans' financial interests is under attack.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis after millions lost their homes to foreclosure. With guidance from Elizabeth Warren, then a Harvard University law professor who had researched and warned about the predatory practices of some financial services companies, it opened its doors in 2011. Since then, the CFPB has fought illegal and predatory conduct by banks, credit card companies, mortgage and auto lenders and others - recovering $14.4 billion in relief for consumers, and making financial institutions pay $1.7 billion in civil penalties

There are two avenues of attack. First, there is a push in the House of Representatives to cripple the CFPB by transferring its independent funding to the annual appropriations process, where it will be vulnerable to lobbying pressure from the very industry it is designed to protect us from.

Second, the Supreme Court recently announced it will hear a new case testing constraints on the power of U.S. regulators to delve into American businesses and individual lives.

CRPB administration told the justices that a lower court decision invalidating the way the CFPB is funded threatens its entire mission; it's fate is in the hands of both Congress and the Supreme Court.

Richard Cordray, former director of the CFPB, wrote a book, "Watchdog: How Protecting Consumers Can Save Our Families, Our Economy, and Our Democracy."

Write the Supreme Court and your representatives to urge them to ensure the independence of our financial watchdog. Special interests in America are influential. We need collective action to protect our families, our economy and our democracy.

Donna Limper

Bloomingdale