'My bill gives a voice to Main Street America,' its sponsor Sean Duffy said. House bill revamps consumer agency

The House voted Thursday to change how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is managed, passing legislation to install a five-member oversight panel to run the new agency instead of a single director.

The 241-173 vote – which came on the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill – also would make it easier to overturn regulations imposed by the bureau, which officially opened for business on Thursday.


Congressional Republicans cheered the prospect of the five-member commission, arguing that one director is too powerful and not sufficiently accountable. The GOP has also attacked the agency for leveling what they say are burdensome regulations.

The commission “is going to work on the behalf of consumers. It is not a Republican or a Democrat issue,” said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), the sponsor of the bill. “My bill gives a voice to Main Street America.”

“I really am just amazed at the hyperbole of the dismantling and the ruining of the agency and the weakening of the agency,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “The bureau will go forward with all of the consumer protections that it is empowered with in the Dodd-Frank bill.”

Prospects for the legislation are dim in the Democratic-controlled Senate. And the Obama administration has threatened a veto if it ever reaches the president’s desk, insisting that the legislation weakens the Dodd-Frank bill so much that it would expose the public to the same risks that led to the 2008 financial meltdown.

The administration also has argued that the five-member commission, in lieu of a single director, would hamper the bureau’s decision-making power.

On Monday, Obama nominated former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to be the bureau’s new director. But Senate Republicans have vowed to block any nominee until the agency is overhauled. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the bureau must be made “more accountable and transparent” before the GOP will allow Cordray’s nomination to proceed.

Duffy’s bill was opposed by most Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized Republicans for trying to weaken a law that she said contained the “greatest, unsurpassed consumer protection in the history of our country.”

“Today, Republican legislation on the floor … strives to gut the consumer financial protection agency, making it impossible – impossible – to protect consumers,” Pelosi told reporters.

“We do not need a watchdog without any bite,” said Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) on the floor. “Let’s keep the bite in the CFPB.”

A single Republican lawmaker voted against Duffy’s legislation — Walter Jones of North Carolina. Ten Democrats voted for it, including Blue Dog Caucus members Ben Chandler (Ky.), Jim Matheson (Utah) and Dan Boren (Okla.).