Phillip Chen is an interesting person, and I had the honor to meet him once at one of our company parties back when I worked in the real estate industry a couple of years ago. When I met him, he was, in my opinion, just a very down-to-earth and practical person, and I have reasons to believe that he still is based on the recent bills that he chose to co-sponsor. But what I really like about him is that he is generally not all that partisan despite his party preference. That is, at least, based on my own observations during the brief encounter I had with him and in terms of the recent bills and legislation he chose to support. It was also quite a scenery to see when I was at that party years ago that I noticed that he had no barriers or hesitancy to interact with people from both sides of the aisle and with people whom he might not otherwise agree with politically. This bipartisan cooperation aspect of him is abundantly evident as he had garnered an endorsement from the California Association of Realtors during the year when he was campaigning for office. This is not to forget that the California Association of Realtors, generally, as a whole, is considered a more of a liberal-leaning political interest group that advocates for affordable rentals and increasing home-ownership. An excellent example of his bipartisan collaboration effort is with California Assembly Bill AB2424. But before we dig deeper into this bill, we would first need to know a bit of the context of his party’s stance on the national level. Usually, the conservative aisle favors loosening government regulations on all aspects of businesses to promote a maximum business-friendly environment to incentivize a business to expand and create more possible job opportunities. However, a few aggressive conservative fellows will be willing to go as far as to favor loosening regulations at all costs and measures possible, even if it puts consumers at a disadvantage to maximize business incentives to expand. Nonetheless, as conservative-minded as Philip can be, he apparently disagrees with his party’s national stance on this particular bill because, in AB2424, he chooses to side with a fellow opposition party assemblywoman Blanca Rubio from the 48th congressional district to expand consumer protection and to regulate predatory lending practices. What is even more fascinating is that within this bill, in section 9 of this proposed amendment, it reads as, “[section]1789.19. (a) Any waiver by a consumer of the provisions of this title shall be deemed contrary to public policy and shall be void and unenforceable….” The inclusion of this clause is very powerful because it singled-handedly shuts down predatory lending practices such as putting contractual terms in a tiny and hard-to-see fine text in an effort to coerce potential credit consumers into blindly acknowledging the waiving of their rights. In addition, it further stated that any attempt for the lenders to circumvent the statutes by asking consumers to waive rights listed in this bill would be treated as a violation of this same title, thus making it entirely unenforceable in courts.

Hypothetical Letter to Phillip Chen

Hello Philip,

[Redacted for Privacy] I have noticed the assembly bill AB2424 that you have co-sponsored with a fellow colleague Blanca Rubio. I want to send you a quick note that I genuinely appreciate this bill and all of your continuing efforts in trying to push it through the California Assembly to make the lending practices more transparent. Coming from a real estate background myself, I completely understand how hard it is to push this type of bill through due to the various lobbying efforts in the lending industry. The real estate industry was reformed many times in the past through this very same legislative process. Due to the various consumer protection safeguards, the California real estate industry has since become a golden standard for other real estate markets across the country. One of the many key things that were reformed in this process within the real estate lending industry was the inclusion of loan estimate disclosure in the preliminary borrowing process, the loan disclosures in the escrow process, and the closing disclosures before the county recording process. I really wish to see this bill amendment passed because, as I read the amended articles, I genuinely believe that it will significantly reduce predatory lending practices, especially in the payday loans industry. It also mentions that it will expand credit counseling to consumers with past credit problems to guide them through the ways to improve it. Last but not least, I sincerely appreciate your effort, and please keep up the excellent work. Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

[Redacted for Privacy]