Senate appropriators approved an FY17 Financial Services funding bill that contains no legislative riders restricting the CFPB, thus setting up a battle with the House.

The Senate approved the bill on Thursday and the committee report was made public on Friday.

The House version of the bill would convert the CFPB into a five-member commission; the Senate bill would not.

The House bill also would prohibit the agency from issuing final rules restricting payday lending until the CFPB conducts additional research. The Senate bill has no such provision.

The Senate bill also leaves out a House plan to require the CFPB to issue a more extensive report on arbitration agreements before issuing final rules, as well as a House plan to make the agency subject to the appropriations process.

Many of the House's proposed CFPB restrictions have been endorsed by credit union trade groups.

Senate Democrats praised Senate Republicans for leaving out the legislative proposals. However, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the Senate appropriations ranking Democrat, said she was disappointed with funding levels in the bill.

“But given that this is a fairly clean bill that does not include significant new authorizations or a long array of controversial poison pill riders, and meets a tough allocation with fair choices, I will support the bill,” she said.

House Democratic appropriators attempted to delete those riders from the funding measure, but failed.

Many of the proposals are also contained in a financial services regulatory overhaul bill introduced by Senate Financial Services Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

The House included several legislative provisions in last year's version of the financial services funding measure, but the Senate did not. The provisions were not included in the final end-of-year appropriations bill.

The Senate Appropriations Committee did adopt an amendment by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that would prohibit federal funds from being used to penalize financial institutions that provide services to certain people in states where marijuana is legal.

Instant Insights /

Senate Funding Bill Omits CFPB Restrictions

Related Stories

Recommended For You