Senate Amendment Targets “Rogue Agency” CFPB

U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) has introduced an amendment to the Senate’s 2015 Budget Resolution seeking to bring Congressional oversight to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“The reckless Consumer Finance Protection Bureau was spawned from the disastrous Dodd-Frank financial regulation law,” said Perdue in a press statement. “Right now, the CFPB is a rogue agency that dishes out malicious financial policy and creates new rules and regulations without any oversight from Congress. On top of that, the agency itself has failed to operate within its own budget and proven it is more concerned with preserving its own power than protecting the public. Ultimately, I believe the CFPB should be dismantled, but an important first step is bringing it into the light for the American people to see its harmful effects on consumers.” 

Perdue’s resolution is latest Capitol Hill effort to realign the CFPB’s current autonomy. Earlier this month, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), chairman of the House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, introduced a bill to rename the CFPB as the Financial Product Safety Commission and would replace the Bureau’s director with a presidentially appointed five-member commission serving five-year terms. Neugebauer’s bill also sought to shift the CFPB’s financing source away from the Federal Reserve and over to the congressional appropriations process. Last month, a bipartisan bill sought to assign an Inspector General to the CFPB—the agency currently shares an Inspector General with the Fed.