---

Mortgage Foreclosure Negotiations

The State Center made a grant to the Executive Group of Attorneys General leading the investigation with respect to the national mortgage foreclosure crisis. The grant helped facilitate the negotiations between the state attorneys general and mortgage lenders that led to a landmark settlement in early 2012.

Student Loan Programs

State attorneys general have been active in seeking to redress and prevent fraud in student loan programs. The State Center provided money that enabled representatives of state attorneys general to participate in negotiated rulemaking sessions held under the auspices of the Department of Education to prepare regulations governing student loan programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.

Airline Consolidation

Continuing consolidation among domestic airlines has led to increased concentration at regional airports. A State Center grant in 2012 permitted the retention of an economist to assist a state antitrust bureau in its review of the potential impacts of a merger on consumers using one of the state's principal airports.

Conspiracy Screens

Statistical methods have been developed for the review of bidding and purchase data to identify situations in which collusion may have occurred. The State Center made a grant in 2011 to enable two state attorneys general to experiment with this methodology to identify possible instances of collusion in connection with purchases made by their client agencies.

Expert Grants

The State Center made multiple grants in 2011 to assist separate multistate groups in connection with a pending litigation and an investigation and to underwrite an expert's participation in a NAAG Antitrust Training Seminar. The grants were made to assist with the retention of an expert economist in the litigation, to permit training of AAGs by subject matter experts in a matter under investigation, and to provide expert input on antitrust aspects of the financial crisis.

Antitrust/Consumer Protection Fellows

The State Center underwrote the participation of AAGs in a novel NAAG fellowship program. The Fellows are AAGs seconded to NAAG who research and report on issues of current importance to the consumer protection and antitrust enforcement efforts of state attorneys general.

The mission of the State Center is to enhance consumer welfare by supporting the fair, effective and vigorous enforcement of antitrust and consumer protection laws at the state level.