On the recordJuly 21, 2011
I've been listening to the debate on the floor, and although this was concerning the rule, there have been a lot of false claims lodged against what this legislation does. It does not gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is not anti-consumer. It is not an attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank. It does three simple things, and all three of those things, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats were for before they were against. These are all proposals that they have made. We all know who the person who first proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is. I think all of the Members of this body would say it was Elizabeth Warren. What did she propose? She proposed a bipartisan commission. She did not propose the end result of Dodd-Frank, which was an unaccountable czar. A five-member board is done for almost every other agency, the exceptions being the EPA and the OCC. With both of those, the OCC is accountable to Congress because it is part of the Treasury Department, and is subject to OMB. The EPA is a Presidential appointee, a Cabinet member. He has to be confirmed. Not only that, he has to come to the Congress for appropriations. There is no accountability on the part of this body.
