Background on the President’s Bill Signing Ceremony Today

RONALD REAGAN BUILDING

Today, the President will deliver remarks and sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act at the Ronald Reagan Building. The President will be joined by a wide array of nearly 400 individuals who were instrumental in passing this historic legislation, including consumer advocates, business leaders, state and local officials, members of Congress, and Americans who will be impacted by reform.

The President will joined onstage at the signing by two Americans who have struggled during these tough times but who would have been protected from massive credit card rate hikes and unexpected overdraft fees by the new consumer protections enacted in this bill.  Their stories are below.

Andrew Giordano is a retired Vietnam veteran from Locust Point, Maryland who the President met last year when he participated in a roundtable to discuss the outdated rules regulating the financial sector.  Mr. Giordano was saddled with hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees on his veteran’s account because his bank had automatically enrolled him in “overdraft” protection that he never asked for.  The new Consumer Protection Bureau will enforce new rules on overdraft programs to make sure that consumers like Mr. Giordano get a real choice and are not unknowingly charged unnecessary fees.

Robin Fox is a 7th grade science teacher from Rome, Georgia who sent an letter to the President in early August because her credit card company retroactively increased the rate on her existing credit card balance from 10.90% to 17.90%, even though she paid her account on time.  The increase has been a burden on her family at an already difficult time, after her husband’s landscaping business dried up due to the financial crisis.  The new Consumer Protection Bureau will enforce the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which bans arbitrary rate hikes on existing balances and other unfair practices by credit card companies.

STAGE PARTICIPANTS

Vice President Biden
Secretary Timothy Geithner
Chairman Chris Dodd, D-CT
Chairman Barney Frank, D-MA
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA
Senator Harry Reid, D-NV
Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-AR
Representative Collin Peterson, D-MN
Representative Steny Hoyer, D-MD
Representative Paul Kanjorski, D-PA
Representative Maxine Waters, D-CA
Representative Mel Watt, D-NC
Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-IL
Representative Gregory Meeks, D-NY
Representative Dennis Moore, D-KS
Senator Tim Johnson, D-SD
Senator Jack Reed, D-RI
Andrew Giordano
Robin Fox

EXPECTED ATTENDEES
*Below is a representative list.

Secretary Gary Locke
Robert Bowser, Mayor of East Orange, NJ
Martha Coakley, Attorney General of Massachusetts
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois
Tom Miller, Attorney General of Iowa
Pam Banks, Consumers Union
Alan Blinder, Princeton
Heather Booth, Americans for Financial Reform
Bill Brodsky, Chicago Board Options Exchange
Michael Calhoun, Center for Responsible Lending
Archibald Cox, Barclays America
Joe Dear, CalPERS/Council of Institutional Investors
Bob Diamond, Barclays PLC
Camden Fine, ICBA
Gerald Hassell, Bank of New York Mellon
Nancy Leamond, AARP
Heather McGhee, Demos
Ed Mierzwinski, US PIRG
Janet Murguia, National Council of La Raza
Vikram Pandit, Citi
Travis Plunkett, Consumer Fed. America
Lauren Saunders, National Consumer Law Center
Paul Volcker, Chair of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Elizabeth Warren, TARP/Harvard Law
Ann Yerger, Council of Institutional Investors
Nancy Zirkin, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights