Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (KY-06), the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, is leading legislation to rein in the largely unaccountable Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Congressman Barr reintroduced the Taking Account of Bureaucrats’ Spending (TABS) Act. The TABS Act makes the funding for CFPB become part of the congressional appropriations process like virtually every other federal agency.
“For too long, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has operated unchecked and unaccountable to Congress,” said Congressman Barr. “Congressional oversight is essential in preventing the sort of political and regulatory overreaches as well as excessive spending that were commonplace at the Bureau in the Obama Administration.”
Currently, the over $630 million budget of the CFPB is directly funded by the Federal Reserve and not by Congress. At Congressman Barr’s request, the Federal Reserve Inspector General investigated the CFPB’s budget request process and published a report that found that there is no meaningful review or oversight of the process. That is why Congressman Barr is proposing the TABS Act, to bring much needed transparency and accountability to the Bureau’s spending.
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