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First the Republicans pass a bill they must know had zero chance of enactment, misleadingly claiming it will cut the deficit. Even more absurdly, they then compare the Office of Financial Research to Big Brother.
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WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday nominated Richard Berner to become the first director of the Treasury Department's new Office of Financial Research.
December 16
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are targeting the until-now-obscure Office of Financial Research — designed to collect data to head off a future financial crisis — portraying it as an Orwellian nightmare, a surveillance state apparatus that will monitor the lives of everyday Americans.
In an orchestrated campaign this week, Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee voted to get rid of the agency, released an ominous web video that taps into citizens' concerns about their privacy in the digital age, and grilled an agency official during an unusually contentious hearing Thursday.
At the hearing, Republican lawmakers broadened their critique of the agency. They took issue with its open-ended budget authority and its failure so far to provide more specifics about how it will evaluate its own performance. Some GOP congressmen also questioned the need for the agency in the first place, saying that the causes of the 2008 financial crisis were apparent before it happened.
"You didn't need an army of Ph.Ds to tell you that Fannie and Freddie were out of control," said Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-Texas, in a reference to the academic expertise the agency is seeking in its employees.
The Republican attacks on the data collection and research office are sharply at odds with both the agency's portrayal of itself and the way it is seen by the congressional Democrats who voted for its creation.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters likened the office's work on financial stability to the weather monitoring done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The comparison drew mockery from Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus.)
"While I understand that congressional oversight of OFR is important, I think that efforts to undermine it are extremely dangerous," Waters said.
Michele Shannon, the agency's chief operating officer, testified that the OFR will be attuned to concerns about data privacy, and will seek to cut down on duplicative data-collection efforts at other federal agencies.
"We see our mission as only filling gaps," she said. "We don't intend to gather data only for data's sake."
But committee Republicans — irked by the absence Thursday of President Obama's nominee to head the agency, Richard Berner — used Shannon as a punching bag.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, after noting that the agency plans to spend $157 million in the next fiscal year, asked Shannon whether the agency's budget could have been $350 million instead. (The Dodd-Frank Act establishes merely that financial firms will pay assessments equal to the agency's expenses.)
When Shannon failed to give a yes or no answer, Neugebauer pushed back forcefully, leading Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison to interject, "I want to register an objection to the abusive nature of this hearing."
Republicans test-drove other criticisms of the agency, too.
"Biggest fear: it's going to be another lobbyist manufacturing machine," said Rep. Bill Posey of Florida.
Rep. James Renacci of Ohio questioned whether the agency is providing enough information about how it is spending its money. He focused on a request late last year for $29 million to cover expenses for one quarter of the current fiscal year.
"Shouldn't we know what that $29 million is being spent for?" Renacci asked Shannon before alluding to the scandal over lavish spending by the General Services Administration. "Could it be a trip to Vegas?"
It remains to be seen whether the GOP attacks will be effective politics.
Unlike the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Financial Research is not well known among the general public, and Democrats have not spent much time explaining its mission. So there may be an opening for Republicans to cement negative perceptions.
The
With a thriller-movie soundtrack and images that evoke Big Brother, the video seems most likely to appeal to Tea Party conservatives who are already extremely concerned about the size of the federal government.
"No limits … to proprietary data … to personal information … to government intrusion," the screen reads at one point.
On Wednesday, the Financial Services Committee approved an amendment, sponsored by Canseco, that would get rid of the Office of Financial Research altogether. (The vote was largely symbolic, since the measure is not expected to gain any traction in the Senate.)
The Republican-controlled House committee approved the measure by voice vote, and committee Democrats did not ask for a roll-call vote that would have required members to record their position publicly.
