Andy Barr: “I thank Ranking Member McHenry for yielding. Mr. Chair, this legislation, H.R. 1500, the so-called Consumers First Act…”

“I thank Ranking Member McHenry for yielding. Mr. Chair, this legislation, H.R. 1500, the so-called Consumers First Act, neither puts consumers first nor puts in place the reforms that are needed to make the CFPB a stronger and more accountable regulatory agency. In reality, this bill is an attempt to politicize consumer protection. It represents my Democratic colleagues' genuine expression of frustration with the current CFPB leadership, but that frustration is misdirected, Mr. Chair. That frustration really is more about their inability to provide meaningful oversight over this Bureau, a Bureau that they themselves created in the Dodd-Frank law. I would submit that my Democratic friends' frustration should not be directed at former Acting Director Mick Mulvaney or current Director Kathy Kraninger. Their frustration is, in fact, a product of the very structure, the very flawed structure, that they themselves created and now stubbornly defend. Today's legislation does absolutely nothing to address the fundamental structural flaws of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which could be remedied on a bipartisan basis with simple reforms that my Republican colleagues and I have supported since the Bureau's creation. I think, now that the leadership has shifted and there is a new administration with new appointees in the leadership, many of my Democratic friends are having regrets about the structure that they originally created.…”