J. Thomas Black - Bankruptcy News - Americans For Fairness In Lending- Hearing Today

Web site visitors: Following is the text of an email from the Americans for Fairness in Lending, which is telling of an important hearing in Congress today about preemption and its role in the credit industry. For more information, you can watch the hearing or go to AFFIL's website, there are links below. Thank you, Tom Black

Dear friend of AFFIL,
We’re writing to ALERT you to an important congressional hearing to be held TODAY, JUNE 13, 2007, beginning at 10am. Click here for a list of witnesses and a link to a live broadcast of the hearing. The hearing will focus on the issue of PREEMPTION.
PREEMPTION – the principle that federal law supercedes state law - is at the heart of the crisis that is America’s lending industry.
In the credit and lending industry, federal preemption impedes or prevents states from providing greater protections for their residents. This serious loss of consumer protections leads to exorbitant interest rates, excessive fees and penalties, legal predatory lending, and a host of other abusive lending practices that are highly profitable to the lenders.
Today’s hearing will seek ideas for improving consumer protection and restoring regulations that protect consumers from abusive and predatory lending practices.
Americans for Fairness in Lending and its partner consumer advocacy organizations support the reversal of preemption and the return of reasonable regulation of the credit industry. We will continue to keep you informed of important activities in the fight to end predatory lending and restore consumer protections.
Please see our website for more information on preemption and today’s hearing. Click here to watch the hearings online.
Thank you for your interest and commitment.
Sincerely, Kirsten Keefe
Executive Director
Americans for Fairness in Lending
http://www.affil.org

Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL), is a non-profit organization working to end predatory lending practices, provide information to help consumers, educate policymakers about the need for reform, and demand action to assist debt-burdened Americans. AFFIL was created through a partnership of national consumer, civil rights, faith-based, non-partisan and grassroots organizations, including ACORN, Center for American Progress, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, NAACP, National Consumer Law Center, National Council of La Raza, UAW, and U.S. PIRG, among others. AFFIL’s goal is to establish fair lending principles and practices that will build and preserve individual and community assets. http://www.affil.org