Category Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Financial Regulation Scholars Amicus Brief in PHH Case

Here.  Deepak Gupta is counsel. Here's the Introduction and Summary of the Argument: The Constitution requires public accountability for government agencies but does not prescribe how it must be achieved. It can be achieved in a variety of ways through agency design, and indeed, there is tremendous variation in agency structure. Public accountability can also […]

The Hill Reports Bill to Weaken CFPB Could be Marked Up in April While Politico Makes it Seem As it Might Not Move

Here is The Hill's Report. Excerpt: Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are eyeing April markups for Dodd-Frank legislation, meaning Democrats have just about a month to settle on a strategy to defend the CFPB. Some Democrats think working with Republicans on some changes to the CFPB could be sound policy. Several House Financial […]

A Question I Would Like to Ask PHH’s Lawyer, Ted Olson

by Jeff Sovern We've blogged several times about the House Financial Service Subcommittee hearing on the constitutionality of the CFPB, at which PHH's lawyer Ted Olson, among others, testified.  Now that I have listened to the hearing, I have a few reactions. Personally, I found the questioning by the Democratic members disappointing. For the most part, […]

More on the House Hearing on the CFPB’s Constitutionality

Brian posted yesterday about the House hearing. For those who don't want to listen to the recording, you can find reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Rep. Ann Wagner takes aim at consumer protection chief), Housing Wire (Tensions escalate at House hearing on constitutionality of the CFPB), Money (This Lawmaker Just Gave the Perfect Defense […]

Book Published on the CFPB From Birth to 2015

The book is Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward (Praeger 2017), by research economist Larry Kirsch and sociologist Greg Squires (George Washington University Sociology Department). Here's an abstract: Meltdown is the first book length account of the CFPB from its inception through 2015. With a foreword based on an interview with […]

Author of “The Imbecilic Executive” to Testify Before Congress on CFPB’s Constitutionality

by Jeff Sovern I originally had a different title for this post in mind, but I didn't have the discipline to resist the one above.  Not that anyone should have any doubts, but the CFPB director is not the executive the article refers to.  Anyway, the House Financial Services Committee is having a hearing titled […]

Why the DOJ Brief in PHH, Arguing that the CFPB is Unconstitutionally Structured, is Wrong

by Jeff Sovern The Department of Justice has now filed its brief in PHH, arguing that the CFPB as created by the Dodd-Frank Act was unconstitutional because the statute did not give the president the power to fire the Bureau's director without cause, and that the appropriate remedy is the one selected by the original […]

Bloomberg’s Chris Bruce: U.S. Set to Signal Stance in Landmark CFPB Powers Case

Here. Excerpt: A government brief in opposition to the CFPB [in the PHH case] likely would have significant weight at the D.C. Circuit, and would boost the odds that the Justice Department might block CFPB efforts to push the case to the U.S. Supreme Court later on. * * * “In the longer term, an […]