Don’t Hamstring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Recipient: House Committee on Financial Services

Dear Member, Committee on Financial Services:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, we write to  express our strong opposition to any legislation that seeks to weaken the Consumer  Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) before it even has a chance to begin its  important work. We urge you to reject the CFPB-related measures being marked up  before the Committee tomorrow.

The Leadership Conference believes that  the abysmal failure of existing regulators to  look out for the interests of the communities we represent, or those of consumers in  general, makes the need for a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection  Bureau perfectly clear. The bills being considered tomorrow, however, do not reflect  this priority.

H.R. 1121, the “Responsible Consumer Financial Protection Regulations Act,” would  replace the Director of the CFPB with a five-person Commission. This is virtually  identical to a proposal that was considered and subsequently rejected during the  process that led to last year’s passage of the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and  Consumer Protection Act.” If enacted, H.R. 1121 would undermine the very  accountability over consumer protection that the CFPB was  intended to provide. The  proposed Commission would be slower to respond to reckless or dangerous practices  in the financial services industry, and would inherently be placed in a position of  weakness relative to other regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the  Currency. As such, H.R. 1121 would benefit neither consumers nor financial services  providers.

Similarly, H.R. 1315, the “Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness  Improvement Act,” would also weaken the CFPB relative to other financial industry  regulators. It would greatly – and unnecessarily – expand the “veto power” that other  regulators currently enjoy over the CFPB. In other words, it would return more  authority over consumer protection laws to the same regulatory bodies  that  steadfastly refused to use it in the years leading up to our nation’s mortgage crisis. As  such, H.R. 1315 represents not just an astonishing refusal to learn from the mistakes  of the past, but an insistence on making the very same mistakes all over again.

A third bill, H.R. 1667, the “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Transfer Clarification   Act,” would prevent the CFPB from assuming responsibility for the enforcement of consumer  protection laws until a Director has been confirmed by the Senate. If any piece of legislation was  more clearly intended to encourage a filibuster of a presidential nomination, one that would  permit opponents of the CFPB to delay its implementation into perpetuity, we are not aware of it.   For these reasons, we urge you to oppose the above bills. Thank you for your consideration. If  you have any questions, please feel free to contact Senior Counsel Rob Randhava at (202) 466-6058.

Sincerely,

Wade Henderson
President & CEO

Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President