The House on July 8 passed a fiscal year 2017 funding bill that would place new restrictions on the CFPB, although those proposals are likely to be dropped when the agency's appropriations bill is finalized.

Voting 239-185, the House passed H.R. 5485, after fighting off Democratic attempts to delete those restrictions. Those restrictions include prohibiting the agency to enact payday lending rules and regulations restricting arbitration agreements until it conducts new studies on their likely impact.

The bill, as passed, also would subject the agency to the annual appropriations process. In addition, the report accompanying the bill urged the CFPB to study the impact of its rules on small financial institutions.

Many of the CFPB restrictions have been endorsed by credit union trade groups.

President Obama's senior aids recommended vetoing a bill that would subject the CFPB to the annual appropriations process.

However, all of those provisions are likely to be deleted when Congress enacts FY17 funding for the federal government.

CFPB restrictions are not included in the Senate version of the FY17 Financial Services funding bill. In addition, Obama's senior advisers have recommended that he veto any funding bill that includes those restrictions. And when House Republicans have included them in funding bills in the past, the Senate has not accepted them.

Many of the CFPB proposals also are in the Dodd-Frank overhaul bill developed by House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), but that bill is unlikely to become law this year, given partisan divisions in the Senate and the short period of time Congress is likely to be in session through the end of the year.

Instant Insights /

CFPB Restrictions Bill Passes House

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