A motion filed by 17 state attorneys general, lawmakers and others to intervene in a case involving the constitutionality of the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was denied by a three-judge panel last week.
The court found last October that the structure of the CFPB was unconstitutional. The CFPB appealed the ruling, with the appeal currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In the motion to intervene, the attorneys general argued that if the court’s ruling is upheld, the power of state attorneys general to effectively protect consumers against abuses in the financial industry would be jeopardized
As original drafters of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB, Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), were also denied permission to intervene.
Another motion, which was also denied, came from Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending, Self-Help Credit Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and CFPB Consumer Advisory Board Chair Maeve Elise Brown.
The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) and three other financial industry trades have urged senate leaders to pass legislation that would replace the director of the CFPB with a five-person, bipartisan board to govern the CFPB.