Odel Initiative on Consumer Protection Legislation

Professor David Oedel over at Mercer University Law School is heading up a legislative proposal that some of you might be interested in signing onto:

Dear Senators and Congresspersons,

As law professors concerned about encouraging the most thoughtful, effective and flexible forms of financial reregulation, we urge that federal law should permit states also to protect financial consumers. In other words, any new financial regulation emerging from Congress this year should include a provision that would allow states the freedom to protect financial consumers with state rules that are stricter than (but consistent with) the minimum consumer protection standards established by federal law. This basic model of state regulatory freedom to protect state interests in ways that do not conflict with federal law has worked well in a number of other arenas, such as in some areas of environmental protection and insurance. Our sense is that many recent financial troubles could have been averted had the states been freer to regulate on behalf of their consumers on the main streets of their states.

We do not propose to alter the current law of federal preemption as it relates to national systemic safety and soundness. Our proposal is only to free up state innovation on matters of consumer financial protection.

Thank you for your consideration.

If you are interested in being a part of this initiative, contact Dave at oedel_dg@law.mercer.edu with e-mail, including your name, title, and institution.

- JSM