WASHINGTON–In the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the CFPB’s funding structure, language that would place CFPB under the appropriations process has been passed by the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee in a voice vote.
As CUToday.info reported, the nation’s highest court recently issued a high-profile ruling that the CFPB’s funding—which occurs outside the congressional appropriations process—is constitutional.
The CFPB has been and remains a point of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, with the former largely supportive and the latter aiming to either gut it or bring it under control.
Divide on Display
Those divergent opinions were on display during the subcommittee hearing during which placing the CFPB under the appropriations process was voted on.
“This legislation also violates the CFPB independent funding structure and thus, its mission is to protect American consumers that contradicts the Supreme Court's recent 7-2 decision authored by Justice Thomas that upheld the structure as constitutional,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). “My Republican colleagues also say they care about fiscal responsibility, as we all should. This bill does not, however, in my opinion, reflect that concern.”
GOP Response
That brought a response from Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) that “It provides sensible cuts to federal financial and consumer protection agencies and prohibits funding for their overreaching harmful regulatory policies. Further, the bill brings the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau into the appropriations and oversight process where it belongs.”
While it passed the House committee, it is unlikely to survive in the Senate.
A ‘Bureaucratic Black Box’
“This episode shows just how much of a partisan flashpoint CFPB is, and probably always will be,” said credit union Hill advocate John McKechnie. “From my perspective, it is amusing to see members of Congress who always insist on transparency and accountability in every corner of the federal government suddenly become advocates for a bureaucratic black box when it comes to CFPB.”