Washington, DC – Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown and House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters led a group of forty current and former Members of Congress – including Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Senator Chris Dodd, and former Representative Barney Frank – in signing a “friend of the court” brief, filed by Constitutional Accountability Center today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in the case of PHH Corporation, et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in defense of the CFPB.

CAC Chief Counsel Brianne Gorod said, “The members of Congress who signed the brief we filed today, including the principal drafters of Dodd-Frank, provide a critical perspective in this case because they can explain why Congress structured the CFPB as an independent agency led by a single director. These members of Congress know better than anyone that Congress concluded that it was critical that the Bureau be free from undue industry influence and have the ability to act promptly and decisively in response to new threats to consumers. Congress had every right to make that choice.”

Gorod continued, “As our brief explains, the Constitution gives Congress broad authority to shape the structure of the federal government, and consistent with that constitutional text and history, the Supreme Court over 80 years ago upheld a removal provision identical to the one at issue in this case. We feel confident that the D.C. Circuit will uphold the constitutionality of the CFPB’s leadership structure, so that the Bureau, which has been remarkably successful in protecting Americans from the harmful practices of the financial services industry, can continue to operate as Congress intended.”

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Resources:

CAC “friend of the court” brief on behalf of current and former Members of Congress in PHH Corporation, et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/PHH_v_CFPB_DC_Cir_En_Banc_Amicus_Final.pdf

Constitutional and Accountable: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CAC Issue Brief, Brianne Gorod, Brian Frazelle, Simon Lazarus, October 2016: http://theusconstitution.org/think-tank/issue-brief/constitutional-accountable-consumer-financial-protection-bureau

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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