WASHINGTON — Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, has reintroduced a bill that would put the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the congressional appropriations process.
Republicans have promised stricter oversight of the CFPB in the now Republican-controlled House. Although Barr's "Taking Account of Bureaucrats' Spending Act" isn't likely to get bipartisan support and advance beyond the House, however, it's still a powerful portent of where Republican interests lie with regard to the agency.
"The CFPB is the most unaccountable and authoritarian agency in the entire federal bureaucracy. I'm leading this legislation to give the CFPB the wholesale makeover it needs to finally be accountable to Congress," Barr said in a statement. "The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and prominent legal scholars have been clear that the CFPB's novel and unique funding structure is unconstitutional by violating the Appropriations Clause. The TABS Act corrects this by requiring the Bureau to go through the traditional federal appropriations."
The bill, along with subjecting the CFPB to the traditional congressional appropriations process, would rename the bureau the "Consumer Financial Empowerment Agency."
The CFPB's funding has become a hot topic in Congress as the
The CFPB, meanwhile, has continued its efforts to crack down on what it calls "junk fees."
