WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democrats vowed to redouble efforts to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency despite lobbyist efforts to stop the measure.
The agency, which the Obama administration proposed, would have broad powers to oversee a range of financial products, from mortgages to credit cards, to safeguard Americans against deceptive and abusive lending practices.
The financial industry's "highest priority is killing this agency," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said.
He told a news conference he hadn't expected Wall Street bankers and lobbyists "to cheer" for the proposed agency, "but I've been disappointed at the energy they're putting" into fighting it.
Frank initially planned for his committee to endorse a bill creating the agency this month, but postponed the vote until September, when lawmakers return from recess, The Washington Post reported.
Part of the reason for the delay is a crush of other business winding its way through Congress, Frank said. But another part is because the measure has become "somewhat more controversial than I expected," he said.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is among the voices opposing the agency's creation.
Frank said he would hold a "national debate" over the new agency's merits.
