[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 27, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5585-H5586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RATING THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, Members often come to the 
floor to talk about inspector general reports about agencies. And they 
are almost always critical of reports--reports that document 
shortcomings.
  I'm very proud today to come to the floor to present excerpts from a 
joint report from the inspectors general of the Federal Reserve and the 
Treasury, in which they give a perfect set of marks to the new Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau. Those two agencies looked into this 
agency. This is an agency that is being set up, under fire, 
unfortunately, in a somewhat unusual situation. And what the inspectors 
general reported is that they've done everything right; that ``they 
identified and documented mission-critical activities and legislative 
mandates''; that the CFPB has developed and is implementing appropriate 
plans.

                              {time}  1020

  They found that they are implementing appropriate plans that support 
ongoing operations as well as the transfer of employees and functions. 
They created several agency-wide documents that identified and tracked 
priorities. ``We found that the agency has completed elements of its 
implementation plans and is making progress on others.''
  It is a joint report from two inspectors general that says they've 
done everything right; so I want to put that forward.
  I want to put it forward, in part, because the individual most 
singularly responsible for its great success, as she was for the idea 
and the creation of this agency, is Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren 
is one of the most able and dedicated individuals that I've ever 
encountered, who has dedicated herself to public service.
  I regret very much that uninformed political opposition denied her 
the appointment to be the head of the agency, because she was not only 
the creator of this idea and a great partner for those of us on the 
Financial Services Committee--I see my colleague from Wisconsin (Ms. 
Moore) who was an important part of this on the floor as we set this up 
in the face of significant opposition from vested interests and from 
ideologues--but in having had the idea, she then presided as the 
appointee of the Secretary of the Treasury and of the President to set 
this agency up in an extraordinary way. It is now, on the date when it 
takes off, ready to function. So she was not simply the creator of the 
idea and a great advocate, but she has shown herself to be a great 
administrator; and I regret the fact that she is not getting the 
appointment.
  Although I have great confidence in the appointment of Mr. Cordray, 
whom the President appointed--he was an outstanding Attorney General, 
and he will be an outstanding Director--I want to reflect for just a 
minute on why we had such unwarranted opposition to a woman of great 
sense and of moderation, a woman who understands the market and was 
ready to help it function.
  Part of it, I have to say, was gender bias. Along with Sheila Bair, 
recently departed as head of the FDIC, Ms. Warren encountered from some 
people--maybe unconsciously on their part--the notion that a very 
strong-willed woman with strong opinions might have a place but not in 
the financial sector; and I regret the loss of both of them. Yet there 
was also on the part of my most conservative Republican colleagues a 
recognition that she was a threat. I disagree with the position not to 
appoint her, but I give credit to President Obama and Secretary 
Geithner because they helped us get this agency created, and they did 
put her in the position and gave her their full backing to get it this 
far.
  We would have ideologues here who would have people believe that 
government is always a bad thing, that less government is always 
better. We've seen it in this notion that we should cap government at X 
percent or Y percent--but I don't regard more firefighting as a bad 
thing; I don't think research into Alzheimer's and cancer is something 
we need to limit; I am not opposed to fixing bridges and highways. So 
this notion that government is always bad is mindless. There is a 
particular problem--and the private sector is a place that will create 
wealth, and I want us to do what we can to create the right conditions 
for the private sector, but there will be times when we need the 
government to protect people from the private sector. That was the 
rationale of the Consumer Bureau.
  The Consumer Bureau was set up--and it's a very popular entity--to 
protect individual citizens from abuses in the private sector. It's 
working well. It was well-designed, I must say. It was well set up, as 
the inspectors general have said. So I believe my most right-wing 
colleagues are terrified. It is their false notion that the government 
is always the source of the problem and the private sector is always 
the source of the good. Sometimes the government does create problems, 
and much of the time the private sector does create wealth, but there 
are times when the public sector has to protect people from the private 
sector. The Consumer Bureau was set up for that.
  Now, the chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, Mr. Bachus, 
said the other day, We don't worry about the Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation of the Federal Reserve. What we worry about is an agency 
that exists solely to protect consumers. He is also the one who said 
that he thought the bank regulators were there to protect the banks, 
but we want to have a regulator there to protect the consumers.
  So I salute Elizabeth Warren. I regret that she will not be able to 
continue the excellent work she has done, but it will live on as a 
tribute to both the idea she had, the political work she did with us to 
get it created, and the extraordinarily good administrative work she 
did in setting it up. I believe Mr. Cordray and the others will do a 
very good job and that we will soon have proof that the public sector 
can, in some cases, protect citizens from private sector abuses.

                      Results of the Joint Review


    CFPB Identified and Documented Mission-Critical Activities and 
                          Legislative Mandates

       Based on CFPB planning documents and interviews of agency 
     officials, we found that CFPB identified and documented 
     implementation activities critical to standing up the 
     agency's functions and necessary to address certain Dodd-
     Frank Act requirements. In addition to activities necessary 
     to establish the primary mission areas identified by the 
     Dodd-Frank Act, such as supervision and enforcement, CFPB 
     designed its organizational structure to account for other 
     mandated functional units as well, including offices for 
     financial education, fair lending, and service member 
     affairs, among others. Moreover, CFPB identified the 
     activities necessary to complete the transfer of employees 
     and data from the transferring agencies in a timely manner. 
     CFPB identified in its plans the need to establish a pay and 
     classification system, information security processes, and 
     financial management capabilities--areas required by the 
     Dodd-Frank Act.
       In addition, CFPB prepared documentation addressing 
     critical activities vital to establishing a new agency. For 
     example, CFPB's plans identified core business activities--
     such as securing office space, establishing procurement 
     capabilities, building payroll and benefits functions, and 
     designing an information technology infrastructure, among 
     others.

[[Page H5586]]

          CFPB Developed and Is Implementing Appropriate Plans

       We found that CFPB developed and is implementing 
     appropriate plans that support ongoing operations as well as 
     the transfer of employees and functions that will occur on 
     July 21, 2011. CFPB planned for mission-critical standup 
     activities and certain Dodd-Frank Act requirements. In July 
     2010, Treasury officials created a document that, according 
     to a CFPB official, served as a roadmap for implementation. 
     Overall, CFPB's approach was to create detailed planning 
     documents at the division level to provide input for the 
     agency-wide strategic plan. Most CFPB divisions maintained a 
     draft strategic plan, organizational chart, and 
     ``dashboards'' that tracked implementation progress and 
     potential risks. The division-level strategic plans generally 
     included division-level missions, goals, deliverables, and 
     coordination activities. We also noted that these plans 
     included multiple phases that span beyond the designated 
     transfer date.
       CFPB also created several agency-wide documents that 
     identified and tracked priorities and milestones for 
     implementation. For example, one priority for CFPB was the 
     transfer of employees from other agencies. To implement this 
     priority, CFPB maintained a detailed recruitment schedule, 
     developed coordination agreements with other agencies, and 
     allocated resources from the various divisions to timely 
     complete the employee transfer process.
       In reviewing the agency's planning documents and discussing 
     the standup status with CFPB officials, we found that the 
     agency has completed elements of its implementation plans and 
     is making progress on others, including its overall strategic 
     plan. Nevertheless, CFPB's operational success will depend, 
     in part, on its ability to effectively execute its plans.

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