Progress on FTC Enforcement Provisions in Wall Street Reform Conference

The marketing and media community has made substantial progress on defeating the broad expansion of FTC powers that is included in the House version of the Wall Street reform bill. But we still need your assistance to keep these provisions out of the final bill.

Yesterday the Senate conferees presented an offer on the bill that rejected the new FTC powers that are in the House version. Chairman Dodd indicated that while he may support changes in the Magnuson Moss rulemaking process, there is no Senate provision and these issues are too complex and important to be resolved in the context of the Wall Street reform bill. Conferees hope to finish the conference this week so the final bill can be cleared for the President's signature next month.

The House conferees may still continue to push for these provisions, so it is very important that marketers contact the Senate conferees to express our appreciation for their support and to urge them to remain strongly opposed to these new powers for the FTC in this bill. Contact information for the Senate conferees is located here and our letter to Senate conferees is available here. Please let the Senators know if you have plants or operations in their states.

ANA took part in a very important meeting yesterday with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller on these issues. We argued that these issues are very important to the entire marketing community and deserve careful consideration outside of the context of the Wall Street reform bill. The Chairman strongly indicated that he will continue to push for changes in the Magnuson Moss rulemaking procedures this year.  

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact Dan Jaffe (djaffe@ana.net) in ANA's Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.1883.