Republicans Want to Rename CFPB the 'Consumer Law Enforcement Agency'
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is proposing to rename the Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the "Consumer Law Enforcement Agency." The proposed change was tucked into a nearly 600-page draft of Hensarling's new Financial Choice Act, which the House Financial Services Committee is set to discuss at a hearing April 26.
April 20, 2017 at 10:00 AM
3 minute read
On the long list of complaints U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one gripe has risen to the top: The agency's independent, single-director structure.
Last September, Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, proposed transforming the bureau into a five-member body akin to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission. Built into that proposal was a name change for the agency. Hensarling's proposal then: the Consumer Financial Opportunity Commission.
With Donald Trump now occupying the White House, Hensarling on Wednesday rolled out a new proposal to retool the Obama-era CFPB. He proposed a more modest structural change that would keep the single-director setup intact but empower the president to fire the agency's head. If passed in time, the bill would allow Trump to replace the CFPB's director, Richard Cordray, before his five-year term expires in July 2018. Hensarling has called on Trump to “immediately” fire Cordray.
So, no commission after all. What about the agency's name? Hensarling has a solution. In his dream world of a dismantled Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB would operate as the “Consumer Law Enforcement Agency.”
That name change was tucked into a nearly 600-page “discussion draft” of Hensarling's new Financial Choice Act, which the House Financial Services Committee is set to discuss at a hearing April 26. A representative from the CFPB wasn't immediately reached for comment.
“We want economic opportunity for all, bailouts for none. We want real consumer protections that will give you more choices,” Hensarling said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Our solution grows the economy from Main Street up, creates more opportunities for working families to get ahead, and levels the playing field with no more Wall Street bailouts.”
The latest proposed name change was among the less weighty provisions in a bill that would restrict the CFPB's enforcement authority and subject it to congressional appropriations. In addition to the word “protection,” the new name would drop “financial,” which conveys a distinction between the CFPB's jurisdiction and the Federal Trade Commission's.
Hensarling's proposal to give the president more oversight of the CFPB director squares with how a federal appeals court—faced with a challenge to the agency's structure—voted to resolve the case. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit prescribed that fix in October. The full appeals court later tossed the panel ruling and will rehear the dispute—PHH v. CFPB—next month.
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