[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11281-11282]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier today, the President announced 
his nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  I remind him that Senate Republicans still are not interested in 
approving anyone to the position until the President agrees to make 
this massive new government bureaucracy more accountable and 
transparent to the American people.
  Back on May 5 of this year, 44 Republican Senators signed a letter to 
the President stating:

       We will not support the consideration of any nominee, 
     regardless of party affiliation, to be the CFPB director 
     until the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection 
     Bureau is reformed.

  We have been very clear about what these reforms would need to look 
like. Republicans have voiced our serious concerns over the creation of 
the CFPB because it represents a government-driven solution to a 
problem government helped create.

[[Page 11282]]

  We have no doubt that without proper oversight the CFPB will only 
multiply the kinds of countless burdensome regulations that are holding 
our economy back right now and that it will have countless unintended 
consequences for individuals and small businesses that constrict 
credit, stymie growth, and destroy jobs. That is why everyone from 
florists to community bankers opposed its creation in the first place. 
That is why we will insist on serious reforms to bring accountability 
and transparency to the agency before we consider any nominee to run 
it.
  It took the President a year to nominate someone to this position. I 
hope he will not wait that long to address our concerns and bring the 
CFPB the accountability and transparency it currently lacks.
  I yield the floor.

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