Ted Cruz Leads Republican Charge to Defund Consumer-Protection Agency

wsj.com

10 points·impish9208··6 comments

Gift link: https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/cfpb-consumer-financial-...

> lacks accountability. It is insulated from ordinary congressional pressure because its funding comes from the Federal Reserve and not through the appropriations process.

Ok that makes sense. Why is CFB not overseen by the congress and is a separate agency without oversight?

> Why is CFB not overseen by the congress and is a separate agency without oversight?

The same reason the Fed itself isn't. Anything directly overseen by congress is or will quickly become inherently political.

Government functions better when some important aspects of it exist as much outside of politics as is possible. Of course the days of that being a thing are rapidly becoming a distant memory given the actions of the current administration in the US.

> This year, his legislation has a twist. Instead of proposing to repeal the measure creating the CFPB, the Texas senator is proposing to set at $0 the amount of money that the Federal Reserve could transfer to the CFPB.

https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx...

> millions spent by agency on travel, office renovations

all with no congressional oversight, only an executive director making unilateral decisions on tax payer money.

Ah. The old Hughes Amendment trick that should have been rendered invalid years ago but is still considered valid because people are too dumb to see past the first two layers of indirection.

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