Hensarling: Cordray acted ‘unlawfully,’ CFPB is a ‘tyranny’

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee didn’t pull any punches when the CFPB director attended a hearing

Hensarling: Cordray acted ‘unlawfully,’ CFPB is a ‘tyranny’
The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee didn’t pull any punches at a hearing Tuesday on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Speaking directly to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who attended the hearing, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) called the agency a “tyranny” and said that Cordray should be fired immediately.

“There is no greater form of consumer protection than fostering competitive, innovative and transparent markets and then vigorously policing them for fraud, theft and deception. In policing our markets, under Mr. Cordray’s leadership, CFPB’s success record is anything but clear,” Hensarling said. “What is clear, though, is that under Mr. Cordray’s leadership the CFPB has shown an utter disregard for protecting markets and has made credit more expensive and less available in many instances; this is particularly true for low- and moderate-income Americans.”

Hensarling also accused the CFPB of acting “unlawfully,” denying market participants due process, and harming the mortgage market.

“According to researchers at the University of Maryland, as a result of Dodd-Frank and the CFPB, middle-income borrowers not only ‘didn’t obtain cheaper mortgages, but were cut out of the mortgage market altogether,’” Hensarling said. “For all the harm inflicted upon consumers, Richard Cordray should be dismissed by the president.”

Hensarling further accused Cordray of conducting “unlawful activities” and abusing his power. He also slammed the CFPB as a whole for acting as a “legislator, prosecutor, judge and jury all rolled into one.”

“Not only must Mr. Cordray go, but this current CFPB must go as well,” Hensarling said. “American consumers need competitive markets and a ‘cop on the beat’ to protect them from fraud and deception. They don’t need Washington elites trampling on their freedom of choice and picking their financial products for them.”

The CFPB, Hensarling said, “represents the summit of unelected, unaccountable and unconstitutional agency government.”

“This tyranny must end and the people’s constitutional rights returned to them,” Hensarling said.

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