Illinois' own Melissa Bean has become a divisive figure on Capitol Hill these days. As the lead negotiator for the New Democrats, the North Suburban congresswoman has become a key ally to the financial services industry as they continue to fight the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). As we recently noted, Bean is thought to be preparing a banking-friendly amendment that would water down the long-overdue consumer protections being pushed by the Obama administration. According to Reuters, she's poised to act sooner rather than later:

A Democratic lawmaker hopes to derail congressional efforts that would allow states to adopt stricter laws for firms offering mortgages and other financial products, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Democratic Representative Melissa Bean could as early as Wednesday propose an amendment to a House of Representatives bill that would remove a provision giving states more rights over federal laws to protect consumers from risky financial products, the source said.

While the language of Bean's amendment has yet to be unveiled, the goal is apparently to preempt states' authority to set and enforce the sort of strict rules that would protect unwitting consumers from getting gouged by risky financial products. Among the outspoken critics of a preemption clause is Illinois' own Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has repeatedly made the case for why more robust state rules are essential to protecting consumers. The Woodstock Institute explains:

Rather than setting strong national standards which states can build on to address local needs, this approach would perpetuate the status quo which allowed national banks to rake in billions in high risk loans, bait-and-switch credit card rates, and deceptive overdraft fees––all while states were forbidden to act.

As the Sunlight Foundation points out, Bean and her colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee haven't been doing the bidding of corporate interests for free. The same banks and credit card companies whose profit margins would be protected by preemptive laws have rewarded those committee members with some princely sums. None has benefited more than Bean, who has so far pulled in $269,800 (43 percent of her total campaign haul) this year from the finance, insurance and real estate sectors.

Encouragingly, newspaper editorial boards and citizen advocates are pushing back against Bean's amendment even before it hits the committee. Meanwhile, Public Citizen is ratcheting up the effort through the new Americans for Financial Reform coalition, noting that "our representatives in Washington have to hear from us -- the people who were put at risk by the big banks." Learn more about their campaign here.

(UPDATE): Bean's spokesman Jonathan Lipman responded with the following statement:

"Congresswoman Bean and the New Dems have promoted strong regulatory reform that institute tough new consumer and investor protection rules, credit card reforms, higher capital requirements, and executive pay reforms, all of which put mandates on these financial institutions that they don't like. Bean and New Dems have been focused on increasing transparency, reducing systemic risk, and preserving the ability for end user businesses to hedge their risk."