Published: February 2018

Policy riders are a shady attempt at regulating CFPB

Friends of Wall Street and the banking industry in Congress want to remove the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from under the Federal Reserve System where it is currently housed and funded. Instead, they want to relegate it to the appropriations process in hopes of sabotaging its independence—a key element in overseeing the consumer finance markets.

Wall Street and their cronies in Congress never tire of trying to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) through backroom deals. That’s because they know that most Americans think we need to be tougher on Wall Street, not create more loopholes. Since its founding, the CFPB has been protecting consumers by ensuring that markets work in an open, transparent, and fair way. Attempting to weaken the CFPB through financial services riders would leave the agency more vulnerable than the Federal Reserve, the Options Clearing Corporation, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to industry influence, once again treating consumer financial protection as a less important matter. It would give Wall Street and the worst elements of the financial services industry endless lobbying opportunities to deny the CFPB the funding to do its job if and when the regulator took action that a sector of the industry did not like.

No members of Congress should allow policy riders that will make it easier for predatory lenders to rip people off, or threaten another financial crisis.

Lead Organization

American's for Financial Reform (AFR)

Other Organizations

Alliance for a Just Society | Allied Progress | AFL-CIO | American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) | American Federation of Teachers | Americans for Financial Reform | Center for Digital Democracy | Center for Economic Justice | Center for Effective Government | Center for Popular Democracy | Center for Responsible Lending | Coalition on Human Needs | Consumer Action | Consumer Federation of America | Consumer Watchdog | Consumers Union | Demos | Fair Share | Generation Progress | Government Accountability Project | International Brotherhood of Teamsters | International Union, United Auto Workers, UAW | The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights | Main Street Alliance | MoveOn Civic Action | Mobilization for Justice, Inc. | N.e.r.v.e. Inc | NAACP | National Association of Consumer Advocates | National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development | National Community Reinvestment Coalition | National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients) | National Consumers League | National Fair Housing Alliance | National Housing Resource Center | National People's Action | National Urban League | Other98.org | PICO National Network | Prosperity Now | Public Citizen | TICAS | UnidosUS | United Food and Commercial Workers, International Union | U.S. PIRG | United States Student Association | Voices of Progress | Young Invincibles

More Information

For more information, please visit AFR's website.

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Policy riders are a shady attempt at regulating CFPB   (NoCFPBAppropsRiderLetterFINAL.compressed.pdf)