Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz

The troubles were evident back in the fall of 2006, when our state started losing jobs. For every month in 2007, 2008 and 2009, we saw Florida’s unemployment rate increase, only to become one of the highest in the nation.

But we are starting to see an economic turnaround. Florida has had three straight months (April, May, and June) of decreases in the unemployment rate. And nationally, our country has had six straight months of private sector job growth, at the rate of roughly 100,000 private sector jobs created each month this year. Manufacturing jobs have also grown for eleven straight months.

If you look at how we started 2009, losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month, the positive private sector job growth is astonishing. We knew last year that we needed to step in and take drastic steps to stabilize the economy and restart job growth, and I believe we have.

The passage of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act (commonly known as the “stimulus”) stopped the economic blood loss and put our economy back on track. And we’ve seen positive signs since that law went into effect. But there is still much more to do.

As we know in Florida, the economy started going off track nearly four years ago. Understandably, it’s going to take more than a few months to recover from such a long slide downward. Unemployed workers will need more assistance while they continue to seek work, and our teachers and first responders will need help as local governments grapple with reduced property tax revenue. But I do believe that we’ve turned the corner on the economy and are headed in the right direction.

While we treat the symptoms, my colleagues in Congress and I are also working to prevent a future economic collapse. We recently took steps to insure that we never allow the big banks and special interests to take our economy over a cliff again and come begging to working families to bail them out.

We can’t ever again ask the hard working Americans who play by the rules to bail out Wall Street brokers and big banks who literally gambled our money away and created this near-depression. That’s why this July, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law, landmark Wall Street reform and consumer protection legislation.

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has clear benefits for you and your family, as well as for America’s small businesses. The Act:

• Establishes a new independent watchdog agency with the authority to:

• ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards, student loans, and other financial products, and

• protect them from hidden fees, abusive and unfair terms and deceptive practices.

• Reforms mortgage lending, eliminating many of the hidden fees and abusive practices that trapped so many families with loans they could not afford to repay, and that resulted in record foreclosures.

The “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” (CFPB) is a first of its kind. Modeled after consumer protection agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be the single streamlined agency responsible for consumer financial protection.

The primary advantages of this bureau will be its strong independence, and its ability to quickly respond to bad deals or schemes that threaten the consumer.

Led by an independent director, who will be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the Bureau will be able to autonomously write rules for consumer protection. These rules will govern all financial institutions, both banks and non-banks, and will offer consumer financial services.

The CFPB will also oversee the enforcement of federal laws intended to ensure there is fair, equitable and nondiscriminatory access to credit for individuals and communities. This could range from requiring new easy-to-read mortgage loans to capping credit card interest rates.

Since the financial crisis was tied to abuses within the housing sector, the legislation also reforms the mortgage industry. It:

• requires lenders ensure a borrower's ability to repay: Establishes a simple federal standard for all home loans and institutions that must ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they take out.

• requires additional disclosures for consumers on mortgages: Lenders must disclose the maximum a consumer could pay on a variable rate mortgage, with a warning that payments will vary based on interest rate changes.

• prohibits unfair lending practices: Prohibits the financial incentives for subprime loans that encourage lenders to steer borrowers into more costly loans.

• prohibits pre-payment penalties that trapped so many borrowers into unaffordable loans.

• establishes penalties for irresponsible lending: Lenders and mortgage brokers who don’t comply with new standards will be held accountable for as high as three-years of interest payments and damages plus attorney’s fees (if any).

The passage of this important law means that we will protect Florida’s consumers from fraud while providing financial security. We fought hard to pass this legislation against the wishes of big banks and Wall Street –the same folks that let America’s families and small businesses pay the price for Wall Street’s recklessness. We won and passed this for you, the consumer.

If you need help, you can reach my office in Pembroke Pines at (954) 437-3936, in Aventura at (305) 936-5724, in Washington, DC at (202) 225-7931. You can also contact me via my Web site at: http://wassermanschultz.house.gov