On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville joined Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott in filing an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, et al., v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, et al.
The brief urges the Court to uphold the Fifth Circuit’s decision that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding structure is unconstitutional and to make the Bureau’s funding subject to congressional appropriations.
The brief states, “The Court need not determine which particular aspect of the CFPB’s funding scheme is the most problematic. This is the easy case. The CFPB ‘is in an entirely different league’ from other entities when it comes to its insulation from Congress… to the point that the CFPB currently operates as ‘a sort of junior-varsity Congress’ setting its own funding levels in perpetuity… Such insulation means that Congress itself is not determining the CFPB’s funding. The Court should affirm the judgment below, which will return the matter of the CFPB’s funding to the normal political and legislative channels, as Article I and the Appropriations Clause require.”
Sen. Tuberville represents Alabama on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where Sen. Scott is the Ranking Member. Tuberville and Scott were joined in the brief by Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina) of the House Financial Services Committee; Representative Andy Barr (R-Kentucky), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, and Representative Bill Huizenga (R-Michigan), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in a bicameral group of 132 members of Congress.
“Thankfully, our government has a system of checks and balances, one of which includes congressional oversight and the power of the purse—appropriations,” Sen. Scott said. “In these important and trusted roles, we analyze and scrutinize the executive branch’s actions on behalf of the American taxpayer, so that the voices of the country’s citizens are heard and their viewpoints reflected. Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—or the CFPB—is a notable exception. It is not accountable to Congress or the American taxpayer through the appropriations process, and it routinely and brazenly acts outside of the scope of its authority.”
Then U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby raised similar constitutional concerns over the independent funding mechanism of the CFPB when he was in office, and the Obama Administration created the CPFB.
“For years, I have argued that supporters of Dodd-Frank sacrificed our Constitution in the name of bureaucratic independence,” Shelby stated. “While the court’s ruling today is a victory for accountability, it is meaningless without a President who is willing to rein in the unmatched authority of the CFPB’s Director.”
Sen. Shelby concluded, “That is why it is critical for the Bureau to be subject to the congressional appropriations process and governed by a board of directors. Only then will Congress have the ability to conduct meaningful oversight to ensure that the CFPB is truly accountable.”
Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020.
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