Brown, Waters Lead 144 Current and Former Members on Amicus Brief Supporting CFPB
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA-43), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, led 144 current and former Members of Congress, including Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and 100 other current and former Members of the House of Representatives, as well as Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), and 38 other current and former Senators, in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the case of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America which seeks to challenge the constitutionality of the CFPB’s funding structure and undercut the agency’s important regulatory authority to protect consumers.
“As the United States explains, accepting the Fifth Circuit’s decision would place at risk a funding model that has been used since the early Republic, which now applies to the OCC and a host of other crucial federal programs,” the lawmakers wrote.
The amicus brief argues that since the beginning of the Republic, Congress has used its appropriations powers in different ways. Up until the wrongly decided Fifth Circuit decision, the courts have recognized that Congress can appropriate in a variety of ways. Furthermore, the CFPB must maintain its independent funding so that it can continue the critical work of protecting consumers and preventing debilitating national economic crises like the financial crisis of 2008.
“Armed with its assessment of what went wrong in the financial crisis, Congress determined that to be effective, the CFPB needed independence from unpredictable annual funding cycles,” the lawmakers added.
When Congress established the CFPB after the 2008 financial crisis, a judgment was made that the CFPB, like other financial regulators, needed independence from unpredictable annual funding cycles to be effective. As outlined by the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve System. Congress still maintains oversight authority of the CFPB, and the agency testifies regularly before Congress and provides information on its various programs.
Click here to read the full Amicus Brief.
See the full list of signers below:
98 Representatives: Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, Assistant Leader James Clyburn, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Steny Hoyer, along with Reps. Colin Allred, Becca Balint, Nanette Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Don Beyer, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Jamaal Bowman, Brendan Boyle, Shontel Brown, Julia Brownley, Salud Carbajal, Andre Carson, Troy Carter, Greg Casar, Sean Casten, Judy Chu, Yvette Clarke, Emanuel Cleaver, Steve Cohen, Gerald E. Connolly, Danny Davis, Don Davis, Dean, DeSaulnier, Dingell, Escobar, Espaillat, Fernández, Frost, Foster, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Robert Garcia, Madeleine Sylvia Garcia, Al Green, Raul Grijalva, Dan Goldman, Jim Himes, Steven Horsford, Glen Ivey, Sheila Jackson Lee, Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson, Marcy Kaptur, Ro Khanna, Ann McLaneKuster, Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, Ted W. Lieu, Stephen Lynch, Seth Magaziner, Betty McCollum, Morgan McGarvey, James P. McGovern, Gregory Meeks, Grace Meng, Gwen Moore, Kevin Mullin, Jerrold Nadler, Wiley Nickel, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Brittany Pettersen, Chellie Pingree, Marc Pocan, Katie Porter, Ayanna Pressley, Mike Quigley, Delia Ramirez, Jamie Raskin, Deborah Ross, Linda Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, David Scott, Robert “Bobby” Scott, Brad Sherman, Eric Swalwell, Mark Takano, Shri Thanedar, Bennie Thompson, Dina Titus, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Ritchie Torres, Juan Vargas, Nydia Velázquez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nikema Williams, and Frederica Wilson.
36 Senators: Chairman Sherrod Brown, Leader Chuck Schumer, Whip Dick Durbin, along with Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Ben Cardin, Bob Casey, Catherine Cortez Masto, Tammy Duckworth, Dianne Feinstein, John Fetterman, Martin Heinrich, John Hickenlooper, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Ben Lujan, Ed Markey, Bob Menendez, Jeff Merkley, Patty Murray, Jon Ossoff, Alex Padilla, Jack Reed, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, Jeanne Shaheen, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, Mark Warner, Raphael Warnock, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Ron Wyden.
10 Former Members: Former Sen. Christopher Dodd, Former Rep. Barney Frank, along with Former Sens. Tom Harkin, Tim Johnson, Ted Kaufman, and Patrick Leahy, as well as Former Reps. Paul Kanjorski, Carolyn Maloney, Brad Miller, and Mel Watt.
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