Palmer Supports Repealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC – Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL), is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 3118, the Repeal CFPB Act, introduced this week by Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX). This bill would repeal the misleadingly named Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency fundamentally unaccountable to Congress, the President, and the Courts.

"I support repealing the CFPB because it has too much power and is insufficiently accountable," said Palmer. "It's accountability to the President is limited, as the head of the agency can be removed only for cause. It has little accountability to Congress, because it is not subject to Congressional funding, and instead funded directly by the Federal Reserve. It is also insulated from accountability to the courts, as the laws governing it specifically grant its interpretations of consumer protection law deference over other interpretations. History teaches us that power which is not held accountable, no matter how well intentioned, is often abused."

Whistleblowers confirm that the unaccountable nature of the CFPB has created a situation where regulators have moved from cooperatively working with banks and bank customers to an increasingly antagonistic relationship between the government, regulated industries, and the customers they serve. Mr. Ali Naraghi, a career Bank examiner in the Southeast Region of CFPB, the region that oversees Alabama, testified before Congress that he was instructed that he did not do his job appropriately if he did not find violations, and that members of his team were instructed to increase their sample size of the documents they reviewed if they didn't find a violation. This was contrary to the established procedure.

H.R. 3118 would return authority from CFPB back to the seven agencies previously tasked with such duties, allowing for more accountability to the President, Congress and the Courts. It would not remove any authority that existed in the agencies prior to the creation of the CFPB.

For any additional questions, contact:

Cliff Smith, (202) 225-4921, clifford.smith@mail.house.gov

U.S. Representative Gary Palmer (R-AL) serves on three Congressional committees: Oversight and Government Reform, Budget, and Science, Space and Technology. Visit Palmer online at his website or via Facebook,Twitter, or Instagram.