The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Tuesday that the public would be able to attend its meetings or watch live streams online – a change of course from its previous closed-door policy.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) said he was pleased with the CFPB’s decision to allow public access to its advisory meetings. Duffy was previously rebuffed when he requested to attend a CFPB meeting.
“I am very pleased that the CFPB heeded not just my calls for more transparency, but the American peoples’ as well,” Duffy said. “Opening these meetings to the public is the right thing to do.”
Duffy introduced a bill in March that would have ensured provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) applied to the CFPB and its advisory committee meetings.
Enacted in the 1970s, FACA was designed to ensure that Congress and the public knew what was being discussed in federal consumer advisory meetings, who attends them and what the meetings cost taxpayers.
The CFPB announced on its website on Tuesday that its Consumer Advisory Board and council meetings would be open to the public beginning on June 18.
“I commend the CFPB for taking this step and hope it is only the first of many more efforts on their part to bring the American people and Congress the transparency that we have been promised,” Duffy said.