CFPB Director Faces Tough Questions at Financial Services Committee
Washington,
March 17, 2016 -
WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, members of the House Financial Services Committee challenged the Director of the CFPB – a uniquely unaccountable government bureaucracy – over Bureau actions that are harming consumers and abusing and exceeding its already immense powers.
House Republicans Clash With Consumer Protection Unit Chief
“Congress has made Mr. Cordray a dictator,” said Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “And when it comes to the well-being and liberty of American consumers, he is not a particularly benevolent one.”
Is the CFPB Really Protecting Consumers?
Republicans—and even some Democrats, such as David Scott (D-Georgia)—on the committee were skeptical that the Bureau's actions are fulfilling its mission to protect consumers. Hensarling, in his opening statement, noted that the “American people are angry” due to a “failed economic recovery,” but they are “even angrier at having their lives increasingly ruled by out-of-touch Washington elites.” Hensarling quoted Thomas Jefferson’s lament that government agencies are sending “swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Consumer Bureau’s Cordray Jousts With Republicans Over Ally Deal
“The Bureau operates with such secrecy, unaccountability and bureaucratic tyranny it would make a Soviet Commissar blush,” Hensarling said Tuesday in a speech where he outlined his plans. “The Bureau typifies not only the shadow regulatory system but also the unfair Washington system that Americans have come to loathe: powerful government administrators, arbitrary rules and unchecked power to punish or reward.”
Cordray Receives Semiannual Upbraiding from Republicans
Appearing before the panel on Wednesday for the CFPB's semi-annual report to Congress, Cordray also sparred with lawmakers over a controversial $80 million auto discrimination settlement with Ally Financial and the agency's proposed restrictions on arbitration clauses.
