Trump Proposes to Eliminate CFPB Budget, Give Congress Choice to Fund

The White House released its 2018 budget proposal to Congress this week. Buried (the second to last item) in a 171-page Major Savings and Reforms supplement is one half-page that addresses the CFPB. The section is called, Restructure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here's what it says:

The Budget proposes to restructure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), limit the Agency's mandatory funding in 2018, and provide discretionary appropriations to fund the Agency beginning in 2019.

Justification 

Restructuring the CFPB to refocus its efforts on enforcing enacted consumer protection laws is a necessary first step to scale back harmful regulatory impositions and prevent future regulatory hurdles that stunt economic growth and ultimately hurt the consumers that CFPB was originally created to protect. Furthermore, subjecting the reformed Agency to the appropriations process would provide the oversight necessary to impose financial discipline and prevent future overreach of the Agency into consumer advocacy and activism.

insideARM Perspective

With a current budget of approximately $600 million, this proposal essentially guts the agency by 2019. However, the CFPB's budget isn't currently controlled by Congress, so the cuts shown above can't practically be made unless there is a structural change to how the bureau is funded before the end of this fiscal year. Still, it's a clear sign of what the President thinks of the currently independent agency.

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