Governor Duke, as I think someone else said, the Fed has had the right to regulate unfair and deceptive loans since, I guess, 1994. Is that correct?

I thank the chairman. I thank you for convening this hearing on consumer protection and the role of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve and other bank regulators have cautioned that the rule changes threaten the viability of the Federal Government's economic recovery plan.

It is absolutely impossible to make them an independent agency and allow them to function as they are and yet give them the opportunity to guarantee or loan billions of dollars without substantially increasing their accountability and…

We particularly object to what we see is allowing the Fed to become a permanent bailout agency.

Republicans believe that the Fed's core mission--and I stress this--is to conduct monetary policy and that mission will be seriously undermined if its supervisory responsibilities are dramatically expanded.

I think we all agree that as we go forward, we do need a more transparent institution with a more clearly defined role.

Whether regulatory power and sweeping new powers really should be centralized and given to the Federal Reserve at a time when our country is facing unprecedented fiscal, economic, and monetary policy challenges, we believe, is very…

This is the perfect storm.

I want to express to you, Devin Nunes, with the diversion of 500,000 what is it, a tremendous amount of water.

whether we tag this on Bush, sort of pin the tail on the donkey, or whether we pin it on the elephant, it is now all of our problems.

The Republican regulatory reform proposal calls for a return to market discipline and an end to bailouts, government intrusions into business, and the government picking winners and losers.