Remember the Wells Fargo scandal in which hundreds of fake brokerage accounts were opened in the names of customers who had no knowledge of them but were subject to fees and costs for them? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was instrumental in uncovering, investigating and levying hefty fines for these unconscionable acts of greed and dishonesty. CFPB, created after the Great Recession to regulate Wall Street, has returned nearly $12 billion back to over 29 million consumers from companies that broke the law, like Wells Fargo.
Imagine, if that agency had not been there last year – those bogus accounts may still be operating, more would likely have been opened and Wells Fargo would still be stealing millions of dollars from its own customers.
Something like this could happen again if our elected officials decide unilaterally that the federal government has no business regulating business. It could happen again when one elected official decides to champion unfettered corporate profiteering at the expense of her constituents. Representative Wagner has been an active vocal opponent of this agency and would like to weaken it, if not outright dismantle it. Her actions could lead to another Wells Fargo-like incident, a company fleecing its own customers with impunity. . . if we let her take them. (Incidentally, Wells Fargo contributes large sums of money to her campaign coffers.)
But, we must not let her. MoPIRG (Missouri Public Interest Research Group) is mounting a phone campaign to contact Congressperson Wagner and implore her to take a more civic-minded and less corporate-centric stance on protecting consumers from predatory, parasitic, profiteering. (MoPIRG And The Federation Of State Public Interest Research Groups are independent, state-based, citizen-funded organizations that advocate for the public interest. MoPIRG is a member of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups.)
Congressperson Wagner’s Phone numbers are:
Ballwin office (636) 779-5449, or Washington D.C. office: (202) 225-1621
Here’s a sample call script:
Hi, my name is _____. I am a constituent who lives in (town & zip), and I am concerned that Rep. Wagner wants to weaken the CFPB. It is a successful and accountable agency – attacks against it serve the big Wall Street banks and other financial companies like payday lenders. Instead of siding with them, she should side with us. She should oppose changes to the agency’s leadership structure, funding, or oversight authority. Thank you.
(Reporter’s Note: Our experience calling these numbers is that the calls are answered by a pleasant and polite sounding staffer who takes a message. Call takes less than 20 seconds. But we received no indication that the message is relayed to the Congressperson. CALL ANYWAY. CALL EARLY. CALL OFTEN. TELL YOUR FRIENDS.)
MoPIRG would like to keep track of the number of calls that were made. Please let them know by sending a confirmation to Erin Goodyear at egoodyear@mopirg.org once you’ve made the call.
Submitted by Mark Kumming, WCD Member