Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Chair, we should be in support of this amendment for one very important reason: The CFPB is unconstitutional.

It is an agency that was given legislative powers through Dodd-Frank, one of the worst pieces of financial regulatory legislation ever to come through this Chamber, and it has no accountability and no oversight from Members of Congress.

They go to the Federal Reserve to get their money. They go out to the public, and they actually are writing regulations that Congress has not even contemplated and putting out oversight that Congress has never actually voted for. They are doing it with no oversight from the people's body.

Just yesterday, the CFPB went to Apple, Google, and the payment firms and came up with new proposed rules on digital wallets when this Chamber has not even come out with legislation around digital wallets or digital assets. We have not done that work in the people's House, so to allow an agency like this to continue to operate with no oversight, to go in and out of any company they choose to based upon the whims of Mr. Chopra, is not constitutional. Furthermore, it is not befitting for an agency under the government of, by, and for the people.

Let me also add that the bill presented by Mr. Barr from Kentucky is a good step in the right direction because it would at least give Congress Article I oversight powers over the CFPB and allow us to do the thing that Mr. Perry is arguing for, which is zeroing out this agency and eliminating it altogether.

Let's speak to the consumer protections that the gentleman from Maryland has talked about.

Before CFPB, consumer protections actually were within the purview of all the other Federal agencies that are under the oversight guise of Congress. CFPB was created so that they wouldn't have to come here for oversight.

I have no problem with making sure that consumers are protected, but not by a rogue, unconstitutional agency that should not exist.

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