Lieu And Saldaņa Join Adminstration Officials And Military Officers To Announce Bill To Protect Military Personnel Against Predatory Lenders

Sacramento, CA – Assemblymembers Ted W. Lieu (D-Torrance) and Lori Saldaña today joined Administration Officials and Military Officers at a press conference to announce legislation to extend strong financial protections for members of the armed forces and their families.

The bill is the product of work done by the two Assemblymembers with the Governor Schwarzenegger’s Military Financial Protection Task Force.  The task force just released a report recommending the Governor support the bill.

Lieu, a former military prosecutor, spoke of the need to provide special protections for members of the military: “Under military law, failure to pay just debts is a crime.  And once a serviceman or woman is charged with it, they can’t be deployed.   This is a matter of National Security.”

In October of this year, the United States Congress approved legislation to stop predatory lenders from targeting military personnel and their families. The federal law, passed as an amendment to the Senate Defense Authorization bill, calls for a 36% annual interest rate cap on loans to military personnel and their families that is consistent with recent recommendations by the Department of Defense.

AB 7 will strengthen enforcement of the federal protections for military personnel in California.  It updates existing financial law to specify that when lenders provide products to military personnel they must abide by the federal law.   It also gives the Department of Corporations the power to enforce the Federal regulations, putting “teeth” into the Federal protections here in California.

Lieu and Saldaña were joined at the conference by Captain Mark Patton, USN, Head, Joint Task Force on Financial Health, Southwest Region. Commanding Officer, Naval Base Point Loma and Sergeant Major Titus of the U.S. Marine Corps. 

AB 7 will be heard in the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee at 4pm on Monday, March 26th.