AlterNet / By Zephyr Teachout and Zach Carter

Whip the Senate on Carper's Let-Banks-Violate-the-Law Amendment!

Sen. Tom Carper is trying to sneak a covert piece of brutal deregulation into the Wall Street reform bill. Don't let him get away with it!

May 13, 2010 |

There is an incredibly destructive and pretty outrageous amendment being taken seriously by the Senate right now. The issue is state attorney general enforcement of federal consumer laws. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) is trying to ban state Attorneys General from taking action if national banks in their states violate Consumer Federal Protection Board (CFPB) rules. The CFPB has enforcement authority only over the largest 2% of banks. So without the AGs, the only cops on the beat for 98% of banks are the bank regulators who didn't care about consumer protection and got us into this mess. If we want to establish a fair financial system, we have to empower states to take action against abusive banks.

It is going to be voted on by the Senate soon, possibly by the end of this week, or early next week. But here's the problem. We don't know where people should focus calls to Congress to secure the last few votes we need to get the amendment passed. We're totally outgunned here by the moneyed special interests, and they are counting on people not getting involved in "technical" issues of who gets to enforce. But it is not technical. It is about the rule of law.

Here's what we need you to do.

1. Go to this link (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3773) and enter your zip code to get the phone numbers for your two senators.

2. Make a quick call to each asking if they oppose Carpers Let-Banks-Violate-the-Law amendment (#3949). Tell them they should.

3. Record your findings in the comments section of this blog post.

Here it is:

Good! (Opposes 3949)

Bingaman (NM) D

Brown (MA) R

Dodd (CT) D

Dorgan (ND) D

Durbin (IL) D

McCaskill (MO) D

Menendez (NJ) D

Merkley (OR) D

Reed (RI) D

Udall, Tom (NM) D

Whitehouse (RI) D

Leaning Good (Might oppose 3949 with one more phone call)

Baucus (MT) D

Begich (AK) D

Brown (OH) D

Hagan (NC) D

Klobuchar (MN) D

Kohl (WI) D

Schumer (NY) D

Shaheen (NH) D

Snowe (ME) R

Tester (MT) D

Bad (Supports 3949)

Bayh (IN) D

Carper (DE) D

Ensign (NV) R

Johnson (SD) D

Nelson (NE) D

Warner (VA) D

Undecided (Needs your call)

Bunning (KY) R

Cochran (MS) R

Conrad (ND) D

Feinstein (CA) D

Graham (SC) R

Landrieu (LA) D

Lincoln (AR) D

Pryor (AR) D

Reid (NV) D

Udall, M (CO) D

Zephyr Teachout is an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University. She was the Director of Internet Organizing for Howard Dean's campaign, the Executive Director of Baobabs College Labs Project, and a consultant to America Coming Together. She was previously the Executive Director of the Fair Trial Initiative.

Zach Carter is an economics editor at AlterNet. He writes a weekly blog on the economy for the Media Consortium and his work has appeared in the Nation, Mother Jones, the American Prospect and Salon.

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