U.S. Rep. Brad Miller wants to centralize lending oversight.

The Raleigh Democrat has co-sponsored a bill that would create a new Financial Product Safety Commission that would enforce consumer protection, evaluate lending practices, coordinate enforcement with state and federal regulators and issue public reports.

Currently, at least 10 different federal agencies have responsibility for loans and other consumer financial products. The new agency's name mimics the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent government agency that regulates safety of consumer products.

"Our economy is in a deep hole dug by the financial industry," Miller said in a statement. "For years they defended every consumer lending practice, regardless of how predatory the practice appeared on its face, as necessary to make credit available to ordinary Americans."

Miller played a key role in bankrupty reforms being considered by the Senate. He is working with Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts and Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts on this bill.

The bill has been endorsed by over 55 national and state organizations, including labor unions, civil rights groups and consumer protection advocates such as the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham.

Roy Cooper says state banking laws should be allowed to work.

In a friend of the court brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the North Carolina attorney general joined his colleagues from 48 other states to argue that federal laws should not override state consumer protection efforts.

In Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, the justices are considering whether New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo can enforce fair lending laws against national banks who gave subprime loans.

"Right now, we need all hands on deck to protect consumers from bad loans," Cooper said in a statement. "Irresponsible lending helped get us into this economic mess, and these times call for more oversight and enforcement of tough consumer protection laws, not less."

In the brief, Cooper and the other attorneys general argue that states have "a long track record of consumer protection enforcement" in cases involving national banks and says barring them from those efforts would be "short-sighted."

He specifically cites North Carolina's 1999 anti-predatory lending law, which he sponsored as a state senator, as an example of state efforts that went beyond the federal government's.

Sen. Kay Hagan was understanding about her committee assignments.

Though the Greensboro Democrat did not get her requested post on the Senate banking committee — despite having worked as vice president of a major North Carolina bank years ago — she said she understood there was a lot of competition this year.

"There'll be another day," she said.

She added that she was "thrilled" to be serving on the Armed Services and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees. 

Sen. Kay Hagan will oversee the military and education.

The Greensboro Democrat was named to the Senate Armed Services and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees Tuesday.

The Armed Services Committee has oversight of military research and development and veterans benefits, a natural fit for a senator from a state with several military bases. The HELP committee has jurisdiction over a hodgepodge of domestic policy issues.

Hagan said the military post would be important, noting that her father and brother served in the Navy and her husband, Chip, is a Vietnam veteran.

"I'm looking forward to working with our military leaders and our soldiers to ensure we have a 21st century military," she said. "We need to find ways to support the next generation of professional soldiers, with programs such as the 21st Century G.I. Bill, and ensure that they have the equipment and training they need and deserve to help keep our country safe."

She also cited her experience in the North Carolina legislature funding programs such as Learn and Earn to help high-school students get college credit.

Hagan got half of what she wanted. She had requested the same committee assignments as predecessor Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who served on Armed Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

During the campaign, she had strongly criticized Dole's tenure on the banking committee.

When former Gov. Mike Easley said he "chunked" a letter, copy editors wondered.

The American Heritage Dictionary includes "to throw out; discard" for the verb "to chuck" but no similar definition for the verb "to chunk," Michael Biesecker reports. 

Perhaps the governor misspoke, they concluded.

At a news conference Monday, President George W. Bush raised the question anew when speaking about his support for a bank bailout.

"I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles," he said.

Perhaps, after eight years in the spotlight, both men's command of the English language is misunderestimated.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan was sworn in Tuesday.

The Greensboro Democrat, one of the election season's unlikeliest candidates, became the second woman and the first Democrat since John Edwards to represent North Carolina.

Shortly before the ceremony, she joined fellow senators on the floor in her seat, next to freshman Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.

With office assignments not yet made, she remains in a cramped space in the basement of the Dirksen building, where she held a reception for visitors.

Stopping by the office reception were North Carolina residents and lobbyists, including representatives from the Farm Bureau, the Sierra Club and Womble Carlyle, a Winston-Salem law firm.

Hagan has requested spots on the armed services and banking committees. (N&O) 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was back on Capitol Hill today for the lame-duck session going on this week.

The Salisbury Republican attended the weekly GOP luncheon in the U.S. Capitol with colleagues, walking past swarms of reporters on her way inside, Barb Barrett reports. (Her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, also attended, though he did not walk in with her.)

Later, in an hours-long Senate Banking hearing, Dole told Detroit auto executives of her skepticism about lending billions of federal taxdollars to bail them out of trouble.

Dole, who lost re-election to Democratic challenger Kay Hagan, opposed the $700 billion federal bailout approved in September. She said she doesn’t think much has come of it so far.

"Like so many North Carolinians I've heard from, I continue to be very skeptical of this newly enacted law is turning out to be the 'blank check' that so many of us feared," Dole said in her opening statement.

She added later: "Without fundamental changes in the automotive industry, we'd just be throwing taxpayers' dollars at firms that will inevitably go under."

Kay Hagan would like to take Sen. Elizabeth Dole's committee assignments.

The Democratic senator-elect is interested in replacing her Republican predecessor on Senate committees overseeing the military and banking, the Associated Press reports.

Both are natural fits for North Carolina, home to a number of banks and military bases. But there might be some competition since both play a role in how the country tackles the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ongoing financial crisis.

As a former vice president of a legal division of North Carolina National Bank in the late 1980s, Hagan has some claim to the banking committee.

During the campaign, she called for an end to the war in Iraq and a greater focus on Afghanistan, two policies also promoted by president-elect Barack Obama.

Dole sat on both committees, though Hagan criticized her for not taking a more active role.

A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole for not taking a more active role on banking issues.

What the ad says: The ad shows a U.S. Senate seat with a sign reading "Elizabeth Dole, Wall Street." Images of trading floors and a couple looking at their monthly bills. "Our economy in meltdown. Elizabeth Dole. Six years on the banking committee. Sixty hearings. Silence. Not one question. Not one statement. But she was busy, raising $850,000 from Wall Street. But for us, she voted against helping families keep their homes. Newspapers called her "ineffective," "with Bush ... not North Carolinians." Elizabeth Dole, fighting for Wall Street — but what about us? The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."

The background: The ad makes several claims about Dole's record.

BANKING COMMITTEE: Dole has served on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs since 2003.

According to transcripts of committee hearings collected by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Dole did not ask any questions or make comments at 65 hearings held between Sept. 16, 2003, and July 29 of this year.

Dole spokesman Dan McLagan said the DSCC's list included some wrong committees and times when she was speaking on the Senate floor, but he would not give a detailed explanation.

"At first glance their list is riddled with errors," he said. "I am not going to devote staff time going through their list line-by-line."

According to campaign finance data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Salisbury Republican has raised $906,905 from several different parts of the financial sector, including $270,985 from securities and investment firms, $247,377 from insurance companies, $242,075 from commercial banks and $146,468 from miscellaneous finance companies.

McLagan noted that those companies include North Carolina-based banks such as Wachovia, BB&T and Bank of America.

FORECLOSURES: Earlier this year, Congress considered a comprehensive bill reforming housing and mortgage regulations in order to address the rising number of foreclosures.

One version of the bill would have allowed bankruptcy judges to reduce the amount owed or changed the interest rate on a mortgage as part of a debt restructuring.

According to a Feb. 29 story in The New York Times, the Bush administration and Republican senators, including Dole, blocked the bill in a party-line vote to eliminate that and other provisions.

"That provision, supported by a wide range of consumer and civil rights groups, drew intense opposition from the mortgage industry, whose lobbyists argued that it would increase risks for lenders and drive up mortgage rates in the future," the Times wrote.

McLagan said the measure would have caused more problems than it solved.

"In a tight credit market, it would have tightened the market further," he said.

Dole voted against a measure in April to provide $100 million for foreclosure counseling, since the measure was not accompanied by an equivalent spending cut elsewhere in the budget.

NEWSPAPERS: Endorsing Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan, the Asheville Citizen-Times said Dole was not able to persuade her colleagues to tackle lending reforms.

"Though ... she was one of a handful of senators raising the alarm about the need for more oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the last five years, she was ineffective in persuading her fellow senators to take action," the paper's editorial board wrote.

In its endorsement of Hagan, The Charlotte Observer said Dole had been ineffective generally.

"Dole should be a terrific senator," the paper's editorial board wrote. "That's why her ineffectiveness in representing North Carolina is such a surprise and such a disappointment."

The Winston-Salem Journal said in its endorsement of Hagan that Dole spent too much time on partisan issues.

"No one questions Dole's work ethic," the paper's editorial board wrote. "She's a vibrant woman. But while in Washington, Dole has reserved her best efforts for issues of importance to the national Republican Party and the Bush administration, not North Carolinians."

Is it accurate? Mostly. The claims quotes from newspapers are accurate. Most observers agree the measures Dole voted against would have helped homeowners, though there is disagreement on their negative effects. It is hard to gauge the truth about the claim about her silence at committee hearings, although it is clear she did not talk as much as other senators.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has raised more than $900,000 from financial firms this cycle.

According to campaign finance data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Salisbury Republican has raised money from several different parts of the financial sector:

* Securities and Investment: $270,985

* Insurance: $247,377

* Commercial Banks: $242,075

* Miscellaneous Finance: $146,468

That totals $906,905,000.

A recent TV ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes Dole for taking "more than $850,000" from Wall Street companies, based on similar data from a week ago.

Update: A Dole spokesman said that not all of the money came from "Wall Street" as the ad suggests, since Charlotte is a major banking center.