FGA Files Amicus Brief in SCOTUS Case to Restore Congressional Budget Authority, Bring Accountability to Rogue Agency
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is writing and enforcing national policy outside of Congressional approval, funding, or oversight.”
NAPLES, FL – Today, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America (CFPB v CFSA). In the amicus, FGA argues the CFPB’s unconstitutional funding structure violates the Appropriations Clause and that returning budget authority to Congress would serve as an important check on the ever-expanding administrative state.
Rather than obtaining its funding from Congress, the CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve—an agency which is itself outside the traditional appropriations process. In addition, the CFPB is funded in an amount determined not by Congress, but by President Biden’s politically appointed director. In establishing this funding structure, Congress has handed over to the executive branch its most important power, the power of the purse. This case is a direct challenge to that funding structure.
“Given the immense power and reach of the CFPB, this impermissible abdication of congressional power presents more than a constitutional problem; it presents a legitimate threat to liberty,” said Stewart Whitson, legal director for the Foundation for Government Accountability. “At the end of the day, the CFPB is an autonomous administrative agency with a large budget, tremendous power, and no real checks and balances. What could go wrong?”
Shortly after the creation of the CFPB, Harvard Law Review questioned the wisdom of an independent agency separated from the normal congressional appropriations process. And recently, the CFPB made headlines for heavy-handed policymaking that could be used to punish speech and penalize financial institutions that stray from the administration’s political preferences.
“What was meant to protect consumers has predictably morphed into a vehicle for the Biden administration to push its political agenda outside of the normal democratic process. Given FGA’s mission to fight for limited, constitutional government, we will not sit by and watch while the CFPB seeks to make policy and broaden its power in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” said Stewart Whitson. “FGA is joining this fight to bring accountability to yet another bureaucratic agency weaponized by this partisan administration. This rogue agency must be subject to congressional oversight—as the Constitution requires.”
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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that promotes public policy solutions to create opportunities for every American to experience the American Dream. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
