GOP Lawmakers Slam CFPB for Withholding Budget Plans

House Republicans recently criticized the ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ (CFPB) in a letter replete with demands that it release financial plans for the next year.

[IMAGE]

In a letter obtained by _MReport_, Reps. ""Michael Fitzpatrick"":http://fitzpatrick.house.gov/ (D-Pennsylvania), ""Randy Neugebauer"":http://randy.house.gov/ (R-Texas), and ""James Renacci"":http://renacci.house.gov/ (R-Ohio) slammed the agency by calling it ""wholly unresponsive"" to their requests for budget details.

The lawmakers chastised CFPB Director Richard Cordray for reportedly failing to distinguish between operating plans and budget justifications.

[COLUMN_BREAK]

Their letter also called the 2013 budget justification one ""lacking sufficient details"" and ""unnecessarily vague.""

The House members frequently made mention of the national debt, tying perceptions of government excess and waste to their demands for congressional oversight of the bureau.

""Every dollar the Fed sends to the CFPB is one less dollar that can be used toward deficit reduction,"" the members wrote. ""It is therefore imperative we monitor CFPB's budget to ensure the Bureau is, in fact, being held accountable for its spending decisions.""

The watchdog agency remains at the center of a political storm over its independence since it went live with 18 consumer financial laws from seven agencies last July.

The letter laid claim to a largely party-line belief that the CFPB should fall subject to congressional appropriations, a process that would deny it the ability to draw on funds from the ""Federal Reserve"":http://www.federalreserve.gov/ or Treasury.

The three House members gave Cordray until mid-May to produce the documents for the ""House Financial Services Committee"":http://financialservices.house.gov/.

""_The Hill_"":http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/225297-republicans-demand-details-on-consumer-bureau-budget quotes Jennifer Howard, a CFPB spokeswoman, as saying that the bureau ""will be as responsive as possible to this, and every request we receive from Congress.""