Proving once again how much disdain Republicans really have for the American public, the House
passed a bill Wednesday, 250-173, to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Because they really, really don't want us to have any recourse against predatory businesses trying to fleece us. No, they believe that those predatory business
should be getting the protection from any regulation that might keep them from maximizing profits, however they may choose to do so.
The legislation "was originally aimed at placing new limits on agencies writing regulations, requiring them to conduct more analysis on their impact and subjecting them to additional legal review."
But a late amendment from the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), would also place new limits on the funding for the CFPB.
Foxx's amendment, added to the bill at the House Rules Committee before it reached the House floor, would cap CFPB funding at $550 million—$36 million less than the Congressional Budget Office estimated the CFPB would spend in fiscal 2016.
Congress doesn't have control over the CFPB's budget, by design. The money comes from the Federal Reserve and is allocated as a percentage of Fed operating expenses. In 2016, the CFPB estimate, it will spend $631.7 million. For those hundreds of millions, the CFPB has already
reaped billions for consumers, "more than $5 billion back in the pockets of more than 15 million wronged consumers through enforcement actions," to be exact. But House Republicans don't want that money to be in the pockets of people who might vote against them. They want it in the pockets of the corporations who fund them.
The White House has threatened to veto the legislation, should it get through the Senate.
