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Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a hearing with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra. Republicans will discuss the Director’s role in responding to recent bank failures, the Bureau’s persistent lack of transparency surrounding rulemakings, and its hyper-partisan regulatory agenda. Watch Subcommittee Chairman Andy Barr’s (KY-06) opening remarks here. Read Subcommittee Chairman Barr’s opening remarks as delivered: |
“Thank you, Director Chopra, for being here today.
“As the Director, you wear a lot of hats.
“You are a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
“This committee has spent a lot of time understanding how regulators reacted to the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Given that both the FDIC and FSOC played critical roles in those failures, I am looking forward to hearing about your involvement in the decision-making process.
“As we said when FDIC Chair Gruenberg and Fed Vice Chair Barr testified before this Committee, there was and continues to be a lack of transparency surrounding the regulators’ decision making that first weekend in March.
“Was there an ideological lens that impacted your response? Did your views regarding bank consolidation lead to a delayed resolution and greater uncertainty in the financial sector? Let’s spend more time on this when we get to questions.
“Turning to your job today as CFPB Director, your agency is responsible for regulating and enforcing consumer financial laws.
“Clear rules, and expectations of how to comply with those rules, benefit all participants in the consumer financial marketplace.
“Unfortunately, under your leadership, the CFPB is doing the exact opposite.
“First, your agency identifies consumer harm in one instance for a specific product.
“From there, you extrapolate that harm occurred everywhere and everyone should be under suspicion. In fact, every act is presumed abusive until the CFPB or a court decides maybe they aren’t.
“You use compliance bulletins, circulars, and advisory opinions to sow doubt and confusion in the marketplace.
“You vilify entire industries simply because they are politically unsavory in your opinion.
“The practice of ‘name and shame’ first, verify later, isn’t consumer protection, it’s McCarthyism.
“This harms consumers and the economy at large, while propping up trial lawyers and consumer activist groups.
“Let me be clear, that is not the mission of the CFPB.
“Finally, I’ll turn to what appears to be your most recent appointment as an appendage of President Biden’s reelection campaign.
“When the President started talking about ‘junk fees,’ the current hyper-partisan CFPB engaged in a campaign about its effort to clamp down on—you guessed it—junk fees.
“Look, it’s an easy target, no one likes fees. And to be clear, some fees should be questioned to ensure people are not getting ripped off.
“But to indiscriminately label fees as abusive is a blatant attempt to pander to Americans who have been hung out to dry in the Biden economy.
“My Democratic colleagues will likely turn to their favorite talking point, ‘corporate greed,’ to explain away the need for fees. But you know who else relies on fees? The government.
“The IRS charges late fees on taxpayers.
“If you want to enter most national parks, you pay a fee.
“Even the CFPB charges fees on Freedom of Information Act requests.
“So why would the CFPB believe the same costs that these fees cover, or the actions they are designed to deter, do not exist in the private sector?
“I’ll finish with this, the current CFPB operates in an opaque, increasingly partisan, and analytically weak manner.
“We experienced this under Richard Cordray, and his legacy lives on with you, Director Chopra.
“The CFPB is directly overstepping its bounds and serving as judge, jury, and executioner in the consumer financial marketplace.”
“That’s why Committee Republicans advanced a package of bills to reform the structure and funding stream of the CFPB to ensure transparency and accountability to the American people.
“And let me just say one thing about the rulemaking on credit cards.
“I want you to talk about this, Director, because we don’t understand how it’s protecting consumers to say to a sub-prime credit card borrower, who’s always on time and never pays late, which is 74% according to your own data—74% of Americans who have credit cards never pay late.
“Why is it consumer protection to force them to pay a higher interest rate by lowering the late fees on borrowers who never pay late?”