Sponsors (17)
The bill shifts CFPB funding into the annual appropriations process to increase congressional control and budget flexibility, but that control risks politicizing and underfunding the Bureau, weakening consumer protection and potentially shifting costs or institutional roles onto taxpayers and away from the Fed.
Taxpayers and voters gain annual congressional oversight of CFPB funding, increasing democratic accountability over the Bureau's budget and priorities.
Taxpayers and federal employees see Congress can adjust CFPB funding year-to-year to align the Bureau's budget with changing fiscal priorities or constraints, giving policymakers more budgetary flexibility.
Consumers (borrowers and other financial customers) could face weaker protections if appropriations are cut or uncertain, reducing the CFPB's enforcement capacity and oversight.
Federal employees, consumers, and taxpayers risk disruptions because moving CFPB funding into the annual appropriations process may politicize the budget and produce episodic underfunding or shutdown-linked interruptions to agency operations.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve loses its statutory transfer role for CFPB funding, reducing the Fed's direct financial involvement and changing institutional funding relationships.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Renames the CFPB to the Consumer Financial Empowerment Agency and shifts its funding from automatic Fed transfers to annual appropriations for FY2026–FY2027.
Official title: To change the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection into an independent agency named the Consumer Financial Empowerment Agency, to transition the Agency to the regular appropriations process, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Garland H. Barr · Last progress January 23, 2025
Renames the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the "Consumer Financial Empowerment Agency," updates statutory text to replace "Bureau" with "Agency," and makes several conforming changes to related statutes. It also ends the Bureau’s automatic funding transfers from the Federal Reserve and moves the agency’s funding to annual appropriations for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, altering how the agency is financed and reducing its automatic funding authority.