Washington, D.C.— U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY) is calling for the House Financial Services Committee to vote on his legislation, the Taking Account of Bureaucrats Spending (TABS) Act. The TABS Act makes the funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) part of the congressional appropriations process like virtually every other federal agency. Last night, the Fifth of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the design of CFPB was in violation of the Constitution because the CFPB receives funding from the Federal Reserve. Today, Congressman Barr released the following statement:
“The funding mechanism for the CFPB as set forth in the Dodd Frank Act is, for all intents and purposes, an automatic yearly outlay from the Federal Reserve based upon an opaque and arbitrary formula. This process not only insulates the agency from accountability by circumventing the congressional appropriations process, but it also unconstitutionally deprives Congress of its spending power and oversight authority. This has produced the most unaccountable and authoritarian bureaucratic agency in the entire federal government.
“I am encouraged that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed that the CFPB’s funding mechanism is unconstitutional, and I join Ranking Member Patrick McHenry in calling for the House Financial Services Committee to vote on my legislation, the TABS Act, which would subject the CFPB to the annual appropriations process, restore the power of the purse, and establish meaningful congressional oversight of the CFPB once and for all.”
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