U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) has finally put an end to the waiting game over the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Late last week, he released a draft bill (PDF) outlining how the watchdog agency would take shape. Unfortunately, the banking-friendly "compromise" brokered in the House by Illinois' own Melissa Bean will stand. And consumer advocates like Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan aren't pleased with the outcome: “State enforcement is critical to helping rein in the banks’ abusive practices that have led to today’s economic crisis,” she said in a statement today. "We must be allowed to continue investigating abusive practices by lenders who are doing business within our borders.”

Consumer advocates' other major gripe with Dodd's bill is that it would scrap the stand-alone CFPA all together and instead create a different agency -- the Bureau of Financial Protection (BFP) -- in the Treasury Department.  Read the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim for more on the potential problems with this aspect of the plan.

Dodd's committee should vote on the measure this week. Stay tuned.