Steven Holt: “The continuing resolution bill before us handcuffs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by setting a maximum level…”

“The continuing resolution bill before us handcuffs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by setting a maximum level that the Federal Reserve can fund the CFPB for the fiscal year that we are in. This amendment would allow the CFPB to function as intended. As a result of an open process last year that included a rare House-Senate conference, the House passed historic reforms to the Nation's financial system. It included such things as providing for disassembly of large, failing financial institutions so taxpayers wouldn't be saddled with the bailout. And it did a number of other things. But I would argue that probably the most important thing it did was to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Members of the House and the Senate, after much deliberation, concluded that in order for the CFPB to protect effectively American consumers, it must be independent. The Dodd-Frank legislation, which is the law of the land, is clear on this point. This new financial watchdog which would serve consumers in every kind of financial transaction where they had had no aid, no protection, no help before would be an independent organization, insulated from partisan fights on Capitol Hill, deriving its operating budget from the Federal Reserve. Section 1017 2(c) was very explicit on this.”