Published: November 2013

Cuts to CFPB would act as setback to consumers

A package of bills designed to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are scheduled for markup as soon as Wednesday, 20 November in the House Financial Services Committee.

Since July 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been protecting consumers and making markets work in an open,transparent and fair way. It has already won refunds of over $700 million to consumers from credit card companies that had treated them unfairly. It has been on the job helping service members and veterans, seniors, students and other consumers at high risk of financial fraud. It is the only federal financial regulator that has met all of its regulatory deadlines, and it has received praise from industry leaders for its transparency and openness.

Legislation under consideration in the Financial Services Committee would harm the CFPB’s ability to protect the public in a variety of ways. Consumer Action and other advocates urge the Committee to oppose each of these bills and any similar proposals designed to hobble the CFPB and prevent it from doing its job. If accepted, each of these proposed bills would weaken the Consumer Bureau, prevent it from doing its job and instead serve the interests of Wall Street.

HR 2385, the so-called CFPB Pay Fairness Act, would reduce CFPB pay schedules and thereby make the CFPB the only federal financial regulator where salaries are not based on the Federal Reserve Board’s salary schedules. This will have the effect of making it harder for the CFPB to attract and keep qualified employees, and would also send the message that consumer protection is a lower priority than other bank regulatory functions.

H.R. 3519, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013 (Neugebauer) would undo the CFPB’s independence from the often-politicized Congressional appropriations process, again, radically singling it out from protections against political interference that are currently granted to the Federal Reserve, the OCC and the FDIC.

H.R. 3183, a bill to provide consumers with a free annual disclosure of information the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection maintains on them is unnecessary. The only time that the CFPB obtains specific personally identifiable information (PII) about consumers is when the consumer has provided it herself, for example in a complaint to the CFPB Complaints Database, or when the information is collected through the already-protected supervisory process.

 

Lead Organization

Americans for Financial Reform (AFR)

Other Organizations

AARP | Americans for Financial Reform | AFL-CIO | California Reinvestment Coalition | Campaign for a Fair Settlement | Center for American Progress | Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Economic Justice | Center for NYC Neighborhoods | Center for Responsible Lending | Connecticut Fair Housing Center | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Consumers Union | Demos | Empire Justice Center | Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People | Greenlining Institute | International Brotherhood of Teamsters | International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW | Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights | NAACP | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients) | National Council of La Raza | National Fair Housing Alliance | National People's Alliance | National Urban League | New Economy Project | Public Citizen | U.S. PIRG | Woodstock Institute

More Information

For more information, please visit AFR's website.

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Cuts to CFPB would act as setback to consumers   (AFRCFPBLetter.pdf)