Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, December 8, 2011 - Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus on Thursday issued the following statement, commending senators who refused to confirm an unaccountable director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unless and until structural reforms are made to the bureaucracy:

“The CFPB under the direction of a single person embodies the Obama Administration’s seemingly endless urge to boss Americans around and tell them what they can and cannot do.  Everyone – Republicans and Democrats – supports consumer protection.  That’s not what this fight is about.  It’s about making sure this massive government bureaucracy is accountable to the people.  The Dodd-Frank Act bestows upon the CFPB director the sole authority to command more than 1,000 government bureaucrats, spend hundreds of millions of dollars with no restrictions, and decide what financial products Americans can and cannot have.

“The House has acted to make sure the CFPB is accountable.  The CFPB should be run by a bipartisan commission, not an unaccountable director.  Democrats, when they originally proposed the creation of the CFPB, recognized that a bipartisan commission is absolutely necessary to ensure the agency is accountable.  After all, they were the first to propose and vote to place the CFPB under the direction of a bipartisan commission.

“The Senators who voted today to insist on first strengthening accountability at the CFPB should be commended and applauded.  I certainly do so.”