“I will prioritize protecting consumers and investors from abusive financial practices," says Rep. Maxine Waters.

“I will prioritize protecting consumers and investors from abusive financial practices," says Rep. Maxine Waters. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Democrats’ Plan to Reverse ‘Interference’ at Consumer Bureau

Likely Financial Services chairwoman Maxine Waters has a bill that calls out acting director Mick Mulvaney by name.

Among the many implications of the coming Democratic takeover of the House in January will be an altered debate on the long-controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the likely chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, has promised a special focus on protecting the bureau that many Republicans want to vitiate.

She would likely revive a bill she introduced in September that singles out acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney by name, calling his appointment illegal and his policies counter to the charter of the agency set up by the 2010 Dodd Frank Financial Reform Act.

“I will prioritize protecting consumers and investors from abusive financial practices, making sure that there are strong safeguards in place to prevent another financial crisis,” Water wrote in a Nov. 9 letter to colleagues seeking support for her becoming the first female chair of the panel. “During the past six years, I have been on the front lines of pushing back against a rigid Republican ideology set on rolling back Wall Street reform and pursuing an anti-consumer, anti-investor, and anti low- and moderate-income family agenda,” she said.

In an earlier letter after Election Day she said Republicans had “completely neglected Congress’s oversight responsibilities,” and she promised an agenda “ensuring that the CFPB can be allowed to resume its essential role of protecting consumers from harmful practices without interference from the Trump administration.”

The Democrats, however, will still have to contend with a White House and Office of Management and Budget (which Mulvaney runs simultaneously with CFPB) that views the bureau through the lens of its deregulatory goals. And they will still work opposite a Republican-controlled Senate, which is likely to vote in the next two weeks on Trump’s nominee, White House homeland security specialist Kathy Kraninger, to replace Mulvaney as permanent CFPB chief.

Waters’ bill, the Consumers First Act (H.R. 6972), would “reverse the harmful changes the Trump administration has imposed on the Consumer Bureau by restoring the agency’s supervisory and enforcement powers and increasing the transparency and accountability,” she said this fall. On Mulvaney, the bill text argues, “The position of an acting director is, by its nature, still intended to be a temporary assignment to maintain the status quo at an agency, until the president appoints and the Senate confirms, a permanent director. Nevertheless, Mr. Mulvaney’s temporary status leading the agency has been characterized by drastic and severe changes of the Consumer Bureau’s daily operations and priorities.”

The bill also demands release of documents related to Mulvaney’s reorganization of the student loan operations that prompted the resignation of a key bureau official in August.

Waters’ larger agenda was characterized as reasonably bipartisan by the Independent Bankers of America, which expects Republicans to pick Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina or Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri as the panel’s ranking member. “Expect Chairman Waters to focus on criticism of the largest banks and Wall Street firms as well as scrutiny of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection rules, enforcement, and administration,” the group wrote after Election Day, using Mulvaney’s name for the bureau that is based on the statute’s exact language.

Consumer advocates see the Democrats new powers of oversight as “the strongest tool in the tool kit,” Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, told Government Executive. “Things are not going according to the mandate of Dodd-Frank, and we hope Waters will use her powers to call in Mulvaney and the new political appointees at the CFPB,” she said. They should be asked about “stalled rulemakings, lack of enforcement and reorganization that’s counter to the mandate of protecting consumers. We hope it all deserves scrutiny, and hope she shines a light on the need to reverse course,” Gilbert added.

Carter Dougherty, a spokesman for the nonprofit coalition Americans for Financial Reform, said, "With CFPB embracing payday lenders and doing favors for big banks, effective oversight will help make clear that Mick Mulvaney has turned the agency that is supposed to look out for consumers into an ally of the industry. A very public examination of what is being done to the agency that is supposed to defend ordinary Americans from Wall Street's bad practices can only be a good thing."

Liberal groups backing the bureau also point to polls and election results that they believe show that Republican efforts to revamp the bureau are unpopular.

The Nov. 6 elections “proved to be a triumph for consumers,” said Allied Progress executive director Karl Frisch. “Democratic challengers in moderate-to-conservative districts won by distancing themselves from Wall Street and financial industry special interests, vowing to protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and calling out predatory lenders,” he said in a Nov. 14 statement. “Conversely, Democratic senators who lost were those who joined Republicans in deregulating the banking industry and reversing consumer and market protections. Bottom line—voters respect Democrats who fight for consumer protections and financial industry accountability."

A poll taken last summer by Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending showed that “voters of all political parties overwhelmingly oppose the actions taken by Mick Mulvaney to undermine the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and feel a strong connection between lax enforcement of the rules on Wall Street and their daily welfare,” the groups said.

The bureau itself, meanwhile, has downplayed some of the controversy while taking actions that its managers believe strongly police financial industry bad practices. On Tuesday, it announced a settlement with the Dallas, Texas, consumer financial services company Santander Consumer USA. The company “violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by not properly describing the benefits and limitations of its S-GUARD GAP product, which it offered as an add-on to its auto loan products,” the bureau said in a release.

Under the terms of the consent order, Santander must provide about $9.29 million in restitution to certain consumers who purchased the add-on product, clearly and prominently disclose the terms of its loan extensions and the add-on product, and pay a $2.5 million civil penalty.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.