Press Releases
Watchdog: MAGA Majority Readies Latest Assault on CFPB and Consumer Protections to Appease Industry Donors
Washington D.C. – Reportedly, Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, is planning to dust off his old bill that aims to subject funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the political whims of Congress. Government watchdog Accountable.US called it the latest in a long-running crusade by conservatives in Congress to defund and defang the agency that has been so successful at protecting consumers to the chagrin of the right-wing’s major donors in the financial industry.
It is no surprise Congressman Barr is helping to lead the charge to impair the independent CFPB as his #1 industry contributor is the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate Sector – raking in over $6.8 million from these industries he oversees on the House Financial Services Committee. In four previous and consecutive Congresses, Rep. Barr has introduced The Taking Account Of Bureaucrats’ Spending (TABS) Act, which he promised would “rein in the largely unaccountable” CFPB despite its track record looking out for all American consumers, including obtaining nearly $15 billion in relief for over 180 million consumers.
Since its inception, the CFPB’s independent funding structure has drawn the ire of conservatives in Congress because they’d prefer the agency have no funding at all to protect consumers from their major donors in the financial industry, like predatory lenders.
The CFPB has been so effective at recouping billions of ill-gotten dollars on behalf of wronged consumers precisely because it has always been free from political influence. That’s what the multitude of lawsuits and legislation aimed at the CFPB’s structure are all about: giving politicians in the pocket of greedy industries all the power they need to shutter the agency and leave consumers vulnerable whenever the political winds blow their way.”
