Congressional Representatives Urge Supreme Court to Find CFPB Funding Structure Unconstitutional

In an amici curiae brief filed in the Supreme Court, 132 members of the United States Congress, including 99 Representatives and 33 Senators, urged the Justices to uphold a Fifth Circuit Court’s determination that the CFPB’s funding structure is "unconstitutional." The amici included members of the House Committee on Financial Services, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

The legislators asked that the Supreme Court affirm the Fifth Circuit Court’s judgment in order to direct the CFPB’s funding to the "normal political and legislative channels." The legislators argued that the Dodd-Frank Act insulated the CFPB’s funding from Congress’s "ordinary appropriations processes" by preventing Congress from ever determining the CFPB’s funding, even indirectly. The legislators asserted that the only way for Congress to control CFPB’s funding is to amend the Dodd-Frank Act and then "override an inevitable veto, necessitating supermajorities in both chambers."

The legislators also refuted CFPB claims that its funding structure parallels other government agencies "from an Appropriations Clause perspective," which requires that public funds are spent as directed by Congress. The legislators stated that under the present structure, the CFPB director can unilaterally decide how much funding the agency needs to "carry out [the CFPB’s] ‘broad’ and ‘potent’ regulatory and enforcement powers."