Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Advisory Boards Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. I would like to thank the gentlewoman for the time.

Mr. Chairman, I will just remind my colleagues that, yes, the bill was bipartisan, but the amendment was not. The amendment, which was rigidly partisan, is what has put this good idea in a space of being
very partisan on this House floor.

You would have thought that after the hard work that Mr. Heck had put into this bill that maybe somebody would have listened to him and would have said, ``Mr. Heck, you have put your time in on this bill. We are not going to do this to your bill. We are going to stick with that bipartisanship that we had all along,'' but that kind of consideration has gone missing in this place.

The truth is, Mr. Chairman, that the Republican leadership has brought us another bill in a long series of bills to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and no small-business person who is listening to this debate should be bamboozled, tricked, or led astray in believing that the rhetoric on this floor is about helping them. The fact is that a lot of small-business people are protected by predatory lenders that the CFPB stops. A lot of small-business people open their businesses with a credit card. They rely on the CFPB to keep the predation away from them. They, in fact, are the beneficiaries of the work of the CFPB's.

All of these bills to attack the CFPB harm the American people. These bills make it easier to steer customers into costly loans that strip their wealth and limit their economic mobility. These bills divert CFPB
resources from protecting consumers to costly, unnecessary, bureaucratic activities.

Last week, we had a bill to repeal the CFPB rules that protect buyers of manufactured homes from what had been before Dodd-Frank a predatory market. Enough Democrats voted ``no'' on H.R. 650 to sustain the President's veto. That is a good thing. We should not remove consumer protections for high-cost loans that are targeted at buyers of manufactured homes. Also last week, the GOP brought another bill which would weaken the CFPB protections against controlled business arrangements in real estate transactions.

Today, the Republican majority considers what is a good idea. H.R. 1195 would require the CFPB to establish a small business advisory council. It is a pretty fair idea. You could argue that it is already
there, but if you don't believe it is, it is not at all a highly objectionable bill. In fact, it has merit. What is wrong with a little bit more input from small business? That is a good thing. The fact of
the matter is that it is a Trojan horse that is being used to attack the CFPB all over again.

My question is this: Why would you want to destroy an organization that has identified $5.3 billion, which is the approximate amount of relief to consumers ordered by the CFPB enforcement actions? It is $5.3 billion that hard-working Americans have saved from predatory lenders. Why in the world, unless you favor predation in financial markets, would you be against the CFPB? There are 15 million consumers who receive relief because of the CFPB, and I hope they let their voices be heard all across the United States against these people who relentlessly try to rip down the CFPB. $208 million is the amount of
money that has been ordered to be paid in civil penalties as a result of CFPB's enforcement actions against people who do not help the market but who distort the market.

The CFPB helps business because good, honest, decent businesses--and America is full of them, the ones that play by the rules--get harmed when a cheater goes without being punished. When a business that cuts corners and abuses consumers does not get eliminated from the market or punished because of its bad behavior, it means that playing by the rules is no longer profitable or the thing to do. The CFPB makes the market work as it should.

There were 145 banks and credit unions under the CFPB's supervisory authority as of June 2014. That is a good thing. There are 30 million consumers with debts in collection, and larger debt collection
companies are now under Federal supervision for the first time because of the CFPB. The CFPB is a good institution. Vote ``no'' on this Trojan horse bill.

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