Consumer Protection and Corporate Accountability

Congressman Tierney believes American consumers deserve protections from abusive and predatory lending practices, and vigorous oversight to ensure American's safety, from the foods we eat to the toys for our children. John has been working with like-minded colleagues in Congress to enhance consumer protections in these and other areas.

In that vein, Congressman Tierney authored his signature Medical Loss Ratio rule, a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that is now law and saving families money. Health insurance premiums Americans pay should be used to make people healthy, not wasted on unnecessary paperwork or excessive CEO pay. That's why he insisted that the Medical Loss Ratio rule be included in the Affordable Care Act. This rule, also called the 80/20 rule requires insurance companies to spend generally at least 80 cents of every dollar that Americans pay in premiums on health care versus CEO pay and bonuses and other administrative costs. If this requirement is not met, insurance companies must pay consumers a rebate. In 2012, more than 12 million Americans, including 163,949 in Massachusetts, received more than $1 billion in rebate checks because of this provision

Congressman Tierney was proud to co-sponsor the Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights, which President Obama signed into law. This landmark legislation requires fair and transparent practices from credit card companies, including eliminating retroactive rate hikes on existing balances, double-cycle billing, and other due date gimmicks.

Believing that it was essential to reform Wall Street, John strongly supported the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This bill, which President Obama signed into law, seeks to end the era of "too big to fail" financial companies, and includes the establishment, for the first time in the nation's history, of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers.

These laws provide unprecedented protection for consumers against abusive and predatory lending practices. Nevertheless, there remains work to be done. To further protect consumers, John introduced the bipartisan 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, which would reinstate key provisions of the original Glass-Steagall Act that separated traditional depository banks from risky financial institutions like investment banks and swaps dealers (for the press release on this bill, please click HERE).

Continuing in his push to protect consumers from banks’ unfair and often unregulated behaviors, John authored legislation that would restore the ability of states to set limits on credit card and other consumer loan interest rates. Usury laws capping interest rates for personal loans have been in existence since the Babylonian Empire. Many states have such laws, but are restricted by current standards that only allow them to apply these laws to banks whose headquarters are within their state.  Congressman Tierney’s legislation, the Empowering States’ Rights to Protect Consumers Act, would allow states to regulate interest rates of all banks that operate within their borders (for the press release on this bill, please click HERE).  John will continue to fight for consumers against lenders charging rates that are all but impossible to repay.

Congressman Tierney is also committed to ensuring Americans are aware of all federal resources that are available to protect their rights as consumers. Feel free to visit www.cfpb.org to find out more about how to protect yourself and report potential scams.