GOP moves forward bills checking Consumer Bureau

{mosads}The approval marks the latest step in a long and public fight between Democrats and Republicans over the CFPB, which was created as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and is scheduled to begin work in July.

Republicans contend that their measures are intended to establish better checks on the outsized power of the agency. However, Democrats argue they are attempts to handcuff the agency before it even begins regulating consumer financial products.

One of the bills approved would replace the top of the agency with a five-member, bipartisan commission, as opposed to a single director. Such a structure was originally included in the version of Dodd-Frank approved by the House, but the bureau’s framework was changed when the bill reached the conference committee.

A second bill would make it easier for other financial regulators to overrule the CFPB on its regulations, while a third would limit the work the bureau can engage in if a director has not been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Nearly every Senate Republican announced earlier this month that they would be blocking any nominee to head the CFPB unless several changes were made to its structure. The lawmakers are asking for the director position to be replaced by a multiperson board and want to make it easier for other regulators to block CFPB rules. They also want the bureau’s budget to be brought under the congressional appropriations process.

Lawmakers on Financial Services originally planned to vote on a bill that would delay the implementation of new rules on financial derivatives for 18 months, but a prolonged debate during a markup Thursday pushed consideration of that bill back. The panel will take up that measure when it returns from the weeklong break.

Also on Friday, members approved a bill that would reform the National Flood Insurance Program.