U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller this morning joined representatives from AARP Iowa in urging Congress not to strip state enforcement provisions from the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Tomorrow, the House Financial Services Committee is expected to begin a mark-up of the legislation, which would create a single federal agency dedicated to oversight of the entire financial services industry.

“Preserving a proper role for the states is crucial if consumers are going to be protected from a repeat of the banking and mortgage abuses we’ve seen in recent years,” Miller said during a press conference at his Des Moines office. Congress is under intense pressure from lobbyists for the major banks to preempt state enforcement powers, Miller said.

Currently, consumer protection is a secondary role spread across seven agencies responsible for overseeing banks and other financial institutions, Miller noted. Additionally, he said, the states are often in a better position to recognize consumer protection needs and regulatory gaps.

Vilsack, speaking on behalf of the Obama administration, said: “We want to provide information that’s simple, transparent and effective” through the agency.

“We owe it to the American people to ensure consumer protection regulations are written fairly and enforced vigorously, and I am pleased to see Congress making progress on critical legislation to provide economic stability for American families and the economy as a whole,” he said.

AARP Iowa, which represents 400,000 seniors in the state, “sees an urgent need for this agency,” said Anthony Carroll, associate state director for advocacy. The proposed agency represents a new approach for consumers, particularly older consumers with depleted savings whom the current system has failed to protect, he said.

“It’s extremely important that strong state laws not be preempted by federal legislation,” Carroll said. “States can often catch problems early, and we’ve seen evidence of that.”

Among the opponents of the agency is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said creating a “massive new federal agency with unprecedented powers over vast segments of the business community” won’t be good for consumers.

“We disagree that adding a new agency atop a broken regulatory system solves the problem or closes regulatory gaps,” David Hirschmann, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said in a press release.

“And, we don’t agree that consumers are well served by allowing the states to each create different disclosures, and regulations on top of those created by the proposed new regulator.”

Critics also say the latest version of the legislation provides wide-ranging exceptions for the nation’s credit reporting agencies, car dealerships, realtors and tax preparation firms, among others. According to Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, those industries would be largely exempt from the new regulator.

In response, Miller said, “We will look at the exemptions, but right now the big push is to ensure states preserve their role in consumer protection.”