WASHINGTON–A member of Congress sat down for a Q&A during America’s Credit Unions GAC here for a short discussion of artificial intelligence and the CFPB—as well as to share his opposition to the Credit Card Competition Act.
Rep. French Hill (R-AR), a former banker, responded to questions from Caroline Willard, president and CEO of the Cornerstone Credit Union League.
When asked about interchange, Hill said, “I don’t support the interchange legislation that’s been pending in the Senate and the House. But let’s talk about process for a minute. This bill has been introduced in both chambers, but in the House we’ve had no hearings, we’ve not had that legislation come to the committee, being marked up, and subject to amendment…That is just not right…it’s certainly not the process of your legislative branch of federal government.”
Here is what else was discussed:
Willard: Tell us about your views and what’s happening in Congress with AI.
Hill: Anytime you have a new trend come as fast as AI, naturally Congress wants to know what is the role of public policy. Chat GPT went from zero users to 100 million users in less than a month.
It means a lot to our customers in the financial services space and enterprises because we can use AI for a better job on compliance and running institutions, or finding new members. The first thing we are doing in the Financial Services Committee is forming a bipartisan committee on AI, and that plugs into the Speaker’s House-wide AI task force.
We are asking questions around exams and algorithms, how was it trained and can you check your work?
It’s going to be an interesting project. We don’t expect to write laws.
Willard: The NCUA vice chairman said if we had stilted the Internet in its early days the way some have suggested we slow down AI now, we would not have had the growth we’ve seen.
Hill: We want to do no harm. This affects web 3.0 and blockchain. We need to have the same philosophical viewpoint (as Congress in the early days of the Internet). Let’s recognize this for what it is, it’s computer code. To just block it is a bad idea.
Willard: As a founder of a bank, what is your opinion on the state of rulemaking with the CFPB?
Hill: It’s no secret that in the Biden administration we are in an avalanche of rulemaking across all the regulators. What House Republicans have done is say, ‘Show us your homework? Where is your cost benefit-analysis? What shows we need this rule?’
Where they have overreached we try to use the Congressional Review Act, where with a 51% vote in House and Senate we can send a bill nullifying a rule to the president, who can veto it.
We have been encouraging the private sector to speak out. We have taken the Biden Administration to federal court to try to block this.
‘Elizabeth Warren Brainchild’
The CFPB was created as an Elizabeth Warren brainchild in 2009 to administer compliance with rules already overseen by regulators. I think it is an agency in search of a mission.
The Supreme Court may rule that the CFPB is unconstitutionally structured. Give us a chance to put the CFPB back on appropriations, put a bipartisan board in place, and make sure they comply with the Administrative Procedures Act.