NY Lawmakers Put on Notice

NY Daily News columnist Albor Ruiz has a piece today noting that New York City's congressional delegation is being put on notice by local politicians and activists who don't want them selling out America's middle-class. Specifically, Ruiz notes that the grassroots is outraged at the passage of the credit card industry-written Bankruptcy Bill, and now the push for the Ney-Kanjorski Act, known in other circles as either the Bankruptcy Bill, Part 2, or the Predatory Lenders' Bill of Rights.

"The first blow against working New Yorkers who fall on hard times has been struck with the so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Act," said Bertha Lewis, executive director of New York's ACORN. "Now Congress is about to deliver the coup de grace in the form of the so-called Ney-Kanjorski Predatory Mortgage Lending Act. We need to hold our New York representatives accountable. They need to stand up for working families."

Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D) was even tougher. "This new law does nothing but provide credit card companies and predatory lenders an easier opportunity to exploit this country's disadvantaged communities. It is unconscionable for any of our federal representatives to support this law. But especially for Democrats, who traditionally have represented the working class. It does not make sense to create a system with inadequate health care, little affordable housing and structural unemployment - and then punish [citizens] for the results of that same malfunctioning system that is beyond their control."

Monserrate and the activists "also warn that the Ney-Kanjorski Act does not provide meaningful consumer protections, yet it does preempt effective state laws like New York's Responsible Lending Act, which protects homeowners and prohibits deceptive and abusive mortgage lending practices that target lower-income seniors and families." For more on that bill see this earlier post.

New York City's delegation has for years been a force for progressive change in America, and it continues to include some of the best Members of Congress. Let's hope they take this message from the locals and run with it.