By a 3-to-1 margin, voters favor the full implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, a new poll shows. The poll, whose results were made public this week, was conducted by the firm Lake Research Partners on behalf of AARP, Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending.
Lake Research Partners surveyed 804 likely voters between July 10 and July 13 and found that ‘voters broadly and strongly support Wall Street reform.’
‘They support it in principle, they support it in law, they support the individual components of the reform law and they want it to be allowed to take effect,’ states a summary of the poll. ‘After hearing arguments in support and in opposition, voters across party lines still solidly support the Wall Street reform law.’
According to the survey, 63% of respondents, including 61% of independents, want more government oversight of financial institutions. One in four respondents want less oversight. Lake Research Partners also found that 74% of voters are in favor of single agency whose dedicated mission is to protect consumers from financial institutions. Support for concept was found across party lines, with 83% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 68% of Republicans in favor of such an agency.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., called the poll's results "further proof that the American people understand the importance of greater oversight of Wall Street and the need for an effective and independent consumer financial watchdog."
The committee is slated to hold a hearing on the Dodd-Frank Act Thursday, marking the one-year anniversary of the historic reform legislation. One of the authors of the bill, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will appear to testify at the hearing, which will "examine the progress in setting up the new framework to better protect consumers and oversee Wall Street," according to a statement from Johnson.
The hearing falls not only on the one-year anniversary of Dodd-Frank, but also during a week when one of the bill's biggest legacies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), finally gained a director nomination from President Obama. On Monday, Obama announced that former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray was his pick, upsetting progressives who have called for Elizabeth Warran to lead the agency.
In a statement this week, Frank said Obama "made the second-best appointment possible." He claimed that Warren, whom he called his first choice for the position, had "fallen victim" to a "wholly unjustified political attack."
On Tuesday, Johnson declared his intent to move Cordray's nomination forward in the Banking Committee in a timely manner. He also referenced Senate Republicans' insistence on blocking any CFPB director nomination, calling it "disappointing" in light of "the American people's clear support for the bureau and its mission of protecting consumers."