Congress offers relief from financial regulations – Part 2

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By G. Steven Bray

Yesterday, we reviewed how the Financial Choice Act, recently passed by the House, would affect banking regulations. Today, we’re going to look at how it would change the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The bill would have three major effects:

– It would change the name of the bureau to the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency and change its mission to enforcing existing consumer financial regulations rather than creating new ones. In this sense, it would function more like other independent federal agencies.

– It would allow Congressional oversight through the appropriations process.

– It would change the leadership from a single, unaccountable director to one who serves at the pleasure of the President.

Democrats seem most exercised about this provision as they view the current untouchable director as a way to maintain their preferred regulatory scheme across presidential administrations.

As I said yesterday, the bill’s fate in the Senate seems dim, but three additional developments offer hope to those favoring change:

– A Congressional Budget Office analysis indicates the Choice Act will reduce the deficit by $33 billion, which makes it possible Republicans could use the reconciliation process to pass reforms with only 51 Senate votes.

– Second, the courts seem poised to decide that the CFPB current structure is unconstitutional, but the final decision still may be a couple years away.

– Finally, it seems likely the CFPB’s current director will resign to run for governor of OH, which would allow President Trump to appoint a reformer to the position.