Senate Republicans introduced legislation last week that seeks to require funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to be appropriated by Congress.
Currently, the Federal Reserve is required to provide whatever funding that the CFPB requests within certain limits. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Accountability Act (S. 4521) would change that, making Congress control the CFPB’s purse strings.
“Under Director [Rohit] Chopra, the CFPB continues to brush aside congressional concerns, forge ahead with political agendas, and push past the boundaries of its authority – all to the detriment of the consumers it’s supposed to protect. By subjecting the CFPB to the congressional appropriations process, this legislation will increase accountability and help Congress ensure the agency stays true to its mission,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), one of the sponsors of the bill, said.
It was also sponsored by U.S. Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Katie Britt (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Steve Daines (R-MT).
“The CFPB must be required to go through the regular congressional appropriations process to ensure public accountability,” Hagerty said. “As a lifelong businessman, protecting consumers in the financial marketplace is important, but handing vast government regulatory power to an agency that is not accountable to the American people’s elected representatives is unacceptable. Americans deserve to have far greater input in this agency.”
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra testified last week before Congress during a U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on the CFPB’s semi-annual congressional report.