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The Senate Banking Housing and
Urban Affairs committee will hear testimony at 10:00 AM EST this
morning on the Consumer Rental Purchase Agreement Act.
Watch
the hearing Live! (If you have trouble accessing the link.
Try
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/encoder/dirksen538.rm?mode=compact
)
Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Acts main sponsor, and
Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-AR), one of the Acts first
co-sponsors, will urge the Banking Committee to accept an
"amendment in the nature of a substitute" to
H.R.1375, the
Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2004, that
includes the language of the Rental Purchase Agreement Act. HR
1375 was passed overwhelmingly by the House in March by a vote
of 392 - 25.
| According to Mike Newman of the Library
of Congress "Bills aren't technically "attached" to other
bills, though that terminology is frequently used. Rather,
the language of one bill is inserted into another."
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Passage of the Regulatory Relief Act in the Senate is seen as
likely this session. Attaching The Consumer Rental Purchase
Agreement Act to the bill represents the best hope of
passing overriding federal regulation of the rent to own
industry since the first version of the Act was first introduced
in 1985.
The Rental Purchase Act is widely supported in the Banking
committee and the Senate as a whole. Even Ranking Democrat Paul
Sarbanes (D-MD) has reportedly softened his opposition and will
not oppose the legislation as he has in the past. But that will
not keep all critics at bay.
Margot Saunders, Managing Attorney for the
National Consumer
Law Center and Edmund Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director
of the U. S.
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), two of the rent to
own industry's most outspoken critics, will have representatives
on hand to oppose the amendment.
| Visitors to studentpirg.org are greeted with an image of a
man cutting down a tree, two smoke stacks, an oil well, a car,
and in the foreground an innocent boy using an inhaler...(and
don't forget to donate) |
Both PIRG and NCLC claim non-partisanship but miss no opportunity
to define conservatives as the focus of evil in the modern world.
They view corporations as puppet masters that will be counting
money when the earth opens up to purge itself of it's human
infestation.
In May of 2003, The NCLC published a report accusing the rent
to own industry of preying on military families. RTO Online
exposed the report itself as the scam (see
story).
Regardless of the outcome, it will be an interesting day. RTO
Online will publish a summary following the hearing.
Go here to watch the hearing live (Requires
RealPlayer).
Witness List for June 22nd hearing
Panel 1
- Honorable Mary L. Landrieu , United States Senator
- Honorable Blanche Lambert Lincoln , United States Senator
Panel 2
- Honorable Donald Kohn , Governor - Federal Reserve Board
of Governors, Federal Reserve System
- Honorable John M. Reich , Vice Chairman, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
- Honorable JoAnn Johnson , Chairman - Board of Directors,
National Credit Union Administration
- Honorable Julie Williams , First Senior Deputy Comptroller
and General Counsel, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- Mr. John Bowman , Chief Counsel, Office of Thrift
Supervision
Mr. John Allison , Commissioner, Mississippi Department of
Banking & Consumer Finance
- Mr. Roger W. Little , Deputy Commissioner, Credit Union
Division, Division of Financial Institutions, State of
Michigan
Panel 3
- Mr. Mark Macomber , President and CEO, Litchfield Bancorp
- Mr. Edward J. Pinto , President and CEO, Lenders
Residential Asset Company, LLC
- Mr. Dale L. Leighty , Chairman and President, First
National Bank of Las Animas
- Mr. Bradley Rock , President and CEO, Bank of Smithtown
- Mr. Eugene Maloney , Executive Vice President, Federated
Investors, Inc.
- Ms. Marilyn F. James , CEO, NEPCO Federal Credit Union
- Mr. William Cheney , President and CEO, Xerox Federal
Credit Union
- Mr. William A. Longbrake , Vice Chair, Washington Mutual
Incorporated
- Ms. Margot Saunders , Managing Attorney, National Consumer
Law Center
- Mr. Edmund Mierzwinski , Consumer Program Director, U. S.
Public Interest Research Group
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only independent source of news for the rent-to-own, rental-purchase,
lease-purchase trade. RTO Online (Rent to Own Online) represents the choice
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