Duffy, Barr highlight needed reforms following court ruling that CFPB is unconstitutional

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) called for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to be converted into a bipartisan commission after a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the bureau was unconstitutional.

Duffy, the chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said that the appeals court’s finding that the structure of the CFPB was unconstitutional should come as a surprise only to those who “put their faith blindly in government.”

“Ironically, the court’s finding that the CFPB isn’t sufficiently answerable to the president completely ignores its unaccountability to the American people and their representatives in Congress, who have no say over the bureau’s funding,” Duffy said. “Worse even than its unconstitutional and unaccountable structure is its failure to protect consumers, as we saw most recently with their mishandling of the Wells Fargo investigation.” 

In response to the ruling, Duffy said that Congress should approve the Financial CHOICE Act, H.R. 5983, a measure introduced by U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) previously introduced the Taking Account of Bureaucrats Spending (TABS) Act, H.R. 1486, a measure included in the CHOICE Act that would transition the CFPB into a bipartisan commission subject to the congressional appropriations process.

“(On Tuesday) the second highest court in the land agreed with what I have been saying all along: that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as currently structured is unconstitutional,” Barr said. “This ruling vindicates my work to reform the Bureau and hold the agency accountable for its regulatory overreaches and abuses of power.”

The TABS Act would enable Congress to oversee the CFPB’s budget for the first time, and would replace the CFPB’s single director with a bipartisan commission.