WASHINGTON—A controversial provision to expand FTC’s powers was left out of the Financial Services Reform Bill (H.R. 4173/S. 3217) that passed the Senate, but the House version of the reform package does contain the FTC power provision. The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 passed the Senate on May 20 and now heads to a conference committee, where the House and Senate will seek to find common ground on the different versions of the bill.
As they stand in the current House version, FTC would have broader authority to issue regulations and enforcement actions by removing many of the procedural checks currently in place. This expansion of power would cover just about every business sector in the country.
While this rider has received relatively little attention—no surprise, given the bill is charged with financial reform and oversight of Wall Street— the Natural Products Association (NPA) remobilized its membership base of more than 10,000 retailers, manufacturing, wholesalers and distributors to urge Congress to keep a narrow focus on economic stability, not an FTC power boost.. “We again asked our members to take action on this important issue by contacting their members of Congress, urging them to focus on strengthening the stability of our economy, not regulating industries that had nothing to do with the financial crisis,” said John Gay, CEO and executive director of NPA. “At a time when businesses are struggling to both survive and create new jobs, adding burdensome new regulations and ceding more authority over our members’ businesses to the FTC is just what the economy does not need.”
Gay noted debate on such topics as derivative regulation and the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency has overshadowed the FTC rider, but such a proposal to delegate sweeping new regulatory authority deserves more thorough deliberation. “NPA members responded strongly to the first call to urge senators to oppose any FTC powers amendment while they were considering the legislation, and I think they can take some credit for keeping the provision off the Senate bill,” said Gay. “Now we need to carry that message to both the House and Senate as they seek to iron out the differences between their versions of the legislation.”
For more information, visit NPAinfo.org.