predominantly hispanic district in illinois, backed off his goal of extending to all americans an effective ban on payday lending after being lobbied, and representative hastings representing mostly a black and hispanic district threatened to vote against the entire consumer protection act if one of the payday loans was included. or one of the payday amendments was included. chairman of the house financial services committee barney frank had these thoughts on the legalized loan sharking industry. the payday lenders have done a lot of work, referring to their work in washington. they've been very good at cultivating democrats and minorities. payday industry representatives have a different spin. the spokesman for the financial services association as they refer to themselves sent us this statement. "like most industries, we participated in the democratic process. we're very proud of our industry, and its efforts to