Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, first, I am just very pleased that our friends on the other side of the aisle actually found somebody to offer the MTR since they apparently, earlier today, were having trouble finding speakers to come to the floor and defend what is probably the most powerful and least accountable government agency in the history of the Republic.

It would be difficult to defend this agency; but let me first dispense with the motion to recommit.

Number one, as we read, this Dodd-Frank did not grant the CFPB power over data breaches, so this part of the MTR is irrelevant. The other portions are redundant.

Mr. Speaker, a more important point is: How can anybody come to the floor to defend an agency that is collecting such massive quantities of data? I find it somewhat ironic that the MTR seemingly is concerned about data breaches to a government agency that is collecting data on 53 million borrowers who took out mortgages since 1998.

The person in charge of the project has testified that it is easy to reverse-engineer the identities of 95 percent of these records. The CFPB, in their credit card database, is collecting at least data on 991 million credit cards held by roughly 60 percent of the adult U.S. population.

Where is the angst and the anxiety and the concern for the possible data breaches of CFPB? How about their consumer credit panel, where they are collecting the database of credit reports on 8.6 million Americans? I mean, it seems to be a contest between CFPB and NSA who can collect the most data on American citizens. Stay tuned on who wins that competition.

And then, Mr. Speaker, we have an agency that, notwithstanding its benign yet Orwellian title, is abusing consumer rights. We have already had the QM rule--Qualified Mortgage rule--promulgated where the Federal Reserve says one-third of Black and Hispanic homeowners can no longer qualify for their mortgages. Where is the outrage there?

CoreLogic, which is a firm that collects data in our mortgage market, has said: When fully implemented, this rule of this agency that is supposed to protect our consumers, half--half--of the mortgages would no longer qualify.

So no wonder Democrats were having trouble finding speakers to defend this.

And then last, but not least, an agency that has no accountability, that sets its own budget, notwithstanding the testimony of the head of the agency who said that he was not building a palace, yet they take $145 million of hard-earned taxpayer money to renovate a $150 million building they don't even own.

On a square-foot basis, Mr. Speaker, this is three times the average class A luxury renovation space in Washington, D.C. On a square-foot basis, it costs more for the CFPB to have their headquarters than it cost to build the Trump World Tower.

On a square-foot basis, it costs more to renovate their headquarters than it does to build the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, at the time the single most expensive hotel in America.

Mr. Speaker, on a square-foot basis, it cost more than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the single tallest building in the world, and there are similarities because the CFPB spent $7 million on the same world-renowned architectural firm to design their building.

Mr. Speaker, again, this is one of the most powerful and least accountable agencies in the history of the Republic. True consumer protection is about competitive, innovative transparent markets that respect the dignity and the liberty of every American citizen to buy the mortgage and get the credit card that they want that is best for them and their families.

Let's respect them. Let's hold accountable government. Let's dispense with the motion to recommit, and let's vote ``aye'' on the Commercial Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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