We Deserve Better Democrats Than Gonzalez

It’s deeply disappointing to find that someone you voted for isn’t living up to their stated principles. Late last week I noticed a news article about a bill that if passed will make it legal for attorneys doing debt collecting to harass debtors once again. While that in itself is disturbing the fact that our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, is the co-sponsor of the bill is even more so. The bill passed out of committee with a largely party line vote with Gonzalez being the only Democrat voting in favor.

The bill Gonzalez sponsored would prevent the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) from exercising supervision or enforcement authority over them and exempt debt collection attorneys from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). H.R. 5082 will enable some debt collection law firms to engage in abusive and deceptive practices and get away with it.

Public interest attorneys like Carolyn E. Coffey, the Director of Economic Justice at Mobilization for Justice, and Claudia Wilner, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, who wrote the article say they know that debt collection attorneys engage in some of the worst debt collection misconduct. Only the FDCPA and the CFPB keeps them even partially in check.

In an example they wrote about their organizations used the FDCPA to sue a debt collection law firm for obtaining hundreds of thousands of default judgments against unsuspecting people,  mostly low-income people of color, by filing false affidavits with the court. The debt collection attorneys used the fraudulently obtained judgments to freeze their victims’ bank accounts, garnish their wages, and coerce them into entering “voluntary” payment agreements. Our FDCPA lawsuit returned tens of millions of dollars to their clients as part of a settlement and resulted in reversing of 200,000 state court judgments.

In a 2016 report by Human Rights Watch, Rubber Stamp Justice: US Courts, Debt Buying Corporations, and the Poor, the authors documented widespread abuses by debt collection attorneys in courts across the country, including cases brought beyond the statute of limitations and hundreds of cases where people never received notice of the suits, all of which resulted in wrongful judgments, often against the wrong people.

Congressional District 15 here in Texas is one of the poorest in the nation and based on the propensity for debt collection attorneys who abuse the law to do so in low-income communities it is likely that we’ll be among those to suffer the most. I find it deeply disturbing that it is our elected representative working to open the door to abuses that were outlawed 30 years ago when Congress first added attorneys to the definition of debt collector in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. When Vicente Gonzalez met with voters in the district during the 2016 primary he claimed he would work for all the people here, his actions say something else entirely. Apparently Gonzalez made friends with the wrong kind of people at the New York office of his law practice.

It isn’t enough to elect more Democrats to Congress or the Texas legislature, we have to work to elect better Democrats too.

What hurricanes and cyber crime have in common

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have devastated huge swaths of the coastal United States damaging homes, businesses and public facilities including roads, water treatment plants and power systems. There have been pleas for donations of food, clothing, water and personal hygiene products. Thousands of first responders, power company employees and civilians have rushed in to save lives. Even Washington in a surprise move got its act together and responded promptly with federal funds to support the recovery effort.

All of that has been big news, including the explosion and fire at the Arkema chemical plant outside Houston which sickened first responders when the toxic fumes from a fire blew over them. Knowing what chemicals are stored at a site which is at risk of fire, flood or other catastrophic event is important for a number of reasons. If you know what might explode or catch fire you can take the precautions necessary to protect your life and health such as wear a gas mask or respirator, wear hazmat gear or increase the distance between the material and you and the people you’re protecting. Then in the aftermath when you’re trying to clean up the mess it’s important to know what chemicals may have contaminated the soil and water. If you’re a fan of CSI or a medical show based in an emergency room you probably know that it’s a lot easier and faster to find a toxin in someone’s blood if you already have an idea of what you’re looking for. Now imagine you’re in the Houston refinery and chemical plant corridor. Wouldn’t you want to know what chemicals you’re likely to find?

What you may not know is that Arkema and other similar chemical plant operators have successfully lobbied to be relieved of their responsibility identify the chemicals stored at their facilities. They spent a few hundred thousands of dollars and stand to save millions. The risk of their failure to disclose can be measured by the damage to the health of the first responders charged with keeping people in the area surrounding their facility safe and the contamination that the public will be contending with for years to come. There is so much toxic material in the flood waters that people are being told not to even try to recover their clothes from flooded homes as the toxins can’t just be washed out.

The hurricanes are the only big news affecting millions of people though, credit reporting company Equifax just announced that due to a security breach 143 million Americans are now in danger of having their identities stolen. How is this connected to the disastrous hurricanes and the undue influence of money in politics discussed in the paragraphs above you might ask? It turns out that Equifax along with the other big credit reporting firms are lobbying congress to prevent the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s regulations on forced arbitration from taking effect later this year. Why is that important? It’s important because Equifax states on their webpage where you’re supposed to go to find out if your social security number and other identifying information was stolen has a small print item which says that by checking on your information you are accepting their claim that you can’t sue them and must use arbitration to get restitution. In other words if you ask them if they failed in their duty to protect your information you have absolved them of responsibility for their failure.

These are just two examples this week of the power of money to influence regulations meant to protect Americans. Why do we allow this to continue?

Reporting some facts and quoting each side isn't journalism

Friday’s edition included a story titled “GOP blocks Obama’s pick for watchdog” about the filibuster which prevents an up or down vote on the man nominated to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). While the story was as accurate as one could ask for it failed to tell the whole story in that once again Republicans including both of our Senators, Cornyn and Hutchison, voted to protect the 1% at the expense of the 99%.

Having mentioned in the story that the Republicans want to eliminate the position of director and replace it with a bi-partisan board you failed to examine the ramifications of such a move which would result in politicizing decisions and removing the teeth from the agency’s rule making and enforcement efforts.

Express News readers deserve more than he said, she said reporting. Real journalism would explain that it is the Republican agenda to overturn every bit of regulation that has been put in place to prevent another implosion of the banking system because it would impair the ability of a few Wall Street fat cats to continue to rake in multi-million dollar annual bonuses.