The United States House of Representatives is contemplating the passage of a bill designed to roll back limitations placed on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) during the tenure of acting director Mick Mulvaney, according to a report in The Hill.
Mulvaney, who was replaced upon the confirmation of the Bureau’s current director Kathleen L. Kraninger and who is now serving as acting White House Chief of Staff, publicly railed against the stated mission of the Bureau both while serving as a legislator in the House before the Trump Administration, and during his tenure as acting director.
The proposed bill that could be voted on within the next few weeks is aimed at rolling back changes to the Bureau that Mulvaney instituted during his time as acting director, while also preventing future occupants of the director position from making changes via the same methods that Mulvaney did.
The “Consumers First Act” – proposed legislation introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) – and its third section specifically deals with the CFPB. Proposed changes in the bill are designed to reinforce the intent of the Bureau as described in the law that initially facilitated its establishment, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010.
“Waters’s bill would reverse changes enacted by Mulvaney and prevent future directors from making similar moves [limiting its authority],” The Hill report reads. “The bill would also create an Office of Students and Young Consumers focused on student loans, debt repayment and financial product access for young adults and their families.”
Throughout Mulvaney’s tenure in the Bureau’s key leadership position, Democrats often called some of his changes damaging to the agency’s mission of protecting vulnerable consumers from abusive financial businesses and their practices. Republicans, meanwhile, lauded Mulvaney’s efforts to rein in an agency that, to them, represents an unprecedented level of regulatory authority.
The bill is unlikely to pass in its current form in the Republican-controlled Senate, though the bill’s introduction indicates that Democrats are intent on rolling back changes made to the Bureau if given the opportunity.
Read the article at The Hill.
