The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, saying it is “focused on the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” is soliciting public feedback on a proposed draft of legislation to reform the CFPB’s structure and powers.
A 70-page “discussion draft” of the legislation was shared by the committee on Friday. The request for comments came a week after Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought appeared before the committee, arguing that he believed the bureau should not exist in its current form.
The draft legislation is broken into five sections. The first section, “Reforming Bureau Governance,” proposes structural reform that would place the CFPB “under the congressional appropriations process, reform the use of civil penalty funds, strengthen cost-benefit and small business impact analyses for rulemaking, require periodic retrospective reviews of major regulations, and establish a dedicated Inspector General.”
The second section is titled “Restoring Clarity and Procedural Fairness.” It aims to provide “greater legal certainty by clarifying key statutory authorities, particularly the CFPB’s authority to regulate unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). Title II also adds procedural safeguards for enforcement actions, clarifies statues of limitations, and addresses jurisdictional boundaries involving attorneys and state-regulated insurance companies.”
The third section is called “Promoting Innovation in Consumer Financial Markets.” According to the committee, it “supports innovation and consumer access to financial products and services. The Title provides clarity for certain small-dollar loan products offered by depository institutions and requires agencies to clearly distinguish non-binding guidance from legally enforceable requirements.”
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“Promoting Effective, Predictable Supervision” is the fourth section of the proposed legislation. It would modify the agency’s supervisory framework “by adjusting supervisory thresholds for banks and credit unions, allowing certain institutions to elect prudential regulator supervision and examination for consumer compliance, strengthening coordination among financial regulators, and tightening the CFPB’s authority to supervise nonbanks.”
The final section poses the question, “Preventing Regulation by Enforcement?” It addresses reducing reliance on enforcement as a way of establishing regulatory policy.
“The title reforms civil money penalties, market monitoring authorities, indexes regulator thresholds, and improves the CFPB’s complaint procedures,” the description states.
The committee is seeking feedback to the questions by Aug. 21, and is asking interested parties to email responses to fsc119@mail.house.gov.




