Thursday, October 13, 2016

The Out-Of-Control Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Gets Its Wings Clipped

Investors Business Daily ^ | October 12, 2016 4:17 PM ET | Editorial 

Separation of Powers: A U.S. appeals court took a small step to restoring constitutional order to the federal government on Tuesday when it issued a blistering decision which found that the design of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the court left this dangerous agency otherwise intact.
It's not too much of an exaggeration to describe the CFPB as the Frankenstein's Monster of federal regulatory agencies. When Democrats breathed life into it as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, they created a bureau that — by design — was almost entirely unaccountable to the public.
Congress has no control over its funding — the money comes from the Federal Reserve. Its regulatory reach is vast. And its sole director could only be removed by the president for cause.
It was this latter arrangement that infuriated the appeals court judges...
...the real problem is that the court's ruling doesn't go nearly far enough. The only change will be that the president can now fire the CFBP director at will, making it more akin to other independent federal agencies like the EPA.
While that gives the president a modicum of control, it does nothing to bring bureau's budget under congressional authority or rein in its seemingly endless regulatory reach. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who's credited with creating the bureau, correctly described the court-mandated changes as "a small technical tweak."
It will take a determined Republican Congress to finally get control of this regulatory monstrosity. Time to get out the pitchforks and torches.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...

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