Northeastern Pennsylvania has been especially hard-hit by the sub-prime crisis. For example, in Monroe County, the number of foreclosures has increased by 700 percent. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, more than 76,000 homes will be foreclosed in our state this year and next. How did this come about and could it have been avoided?

Especially in recent years, state governments have been taking the lead to protect consumers against fraud and abuse. It was a mixture of state innovation and simple need because the federal government had abdicated its responsibility to protect us against a variety of physical and financial perils like prematurely marketed drugs, toys containing lead paint, corrupt companies like Enron or predatory lending practices.

Simple abdication of the government’s responsibility to protect the general welfare under our Constitution is bad enough, but this government has not stopped there. In countless areas, the current administration, aided and abetted by the Supreme Court, has changed regulations and laws to take away states’ rights to regulate bad corporate behavior and make the federal government the supreme arbiter of consumer safety issues. In effect, the pro-corporate bureaucracy in Washington has shut the courthouse door to many injured consumers and their families.

One example of this dangerous shift in regulatory philosophy involves predatory lending. Sensing a crisis in the mortgage marketplace, a few state legislatures passed laws based on a model written by the American Association of Retired Persons to regulate the practice. The law, in effect, put mortgage companies on notice that if they bought up loans that were predatory in nature, they would be responsible for the consequences. Georgia was the first to act, and the secondary mortgage market slowed down dramatically there.

In 2004, the federal government said, “Not so fast,” to Georgia and other states following its lead. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which gets its funding primarily from bank fees, said the state laws were invalid, that the federal bureaucracy had the sole role in regulating banks, mortgages and loans.

How did the comptroller fulfill its role? It allowed us to walk the plank of the sub-prime crisis and the ensuing economic downturn. The mortgage companies and banks were successful at both lobbying the comptroller to take state power away and then put blinders on to the emerging disaster.

This trend of bureaucratic preemption of state law and state courts goes far beyond predatory lending. It has wrested power to be our sole protector against inadequately tested drugs, and has even hurt the ability of states to protect chemical plants against terrorist attacks. In some cases, it has taken power away by overturning state law and in others, it has shut courthouse doors to injured consumers seeking restitution as their last resort. It also offends Pennsylvania’s most important product ever made: the U.S. Constitution.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski and others have introduced bipartisan federal legislation to strengthen the regulation of the sub-prime mortgage industry. This is a good first step.

Congress is expressly granted power to enact federal laws that supplant state laws. But over the last seven years, federal regulatory agencies have taken the unprecedented step of creating rules that preempt state law and state court remedies. This practice, called preemption, usurps the authority of Congress, state legislatures and state courts. It is harmful to Americans.

The idea that if bare minimum federal standards are met, all claims brought in state court should be discarded, is a direct attack on state courts, state legislatures and Congress. State remedies were designed to complement, not conflict with, federal health and safety regulations.

This development reflects a sharp tilt in favor of Wall Street over Main Street. It also offends the very conservative bias against a carnivorous federal government. It is time to take America back.