Financial Services Republicans approve CFPB cuts for GOP megabill

House Financial Services Republicans approved legislation Wednesday that would slash funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and dissolve the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board into the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of the party-line, GOP megabill that is central to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The panel voted along party lines, 30-22, to advance its portion of the GOP package, which is expected to include sweeping tax, energy and border policy changes. Financial Services Republicans say their section of the bill will produce more than the $1 billion in savings it was instructed to find.

The measure would slash the amount of funding the CFPB has access to by almost 60 percent. The bureau’s funding, which is derived from the Federal Reserve, would be capped at 5 percent of the central bank’s operating expenses under the proposal — down from the current limit of 12 percent.

The legislation would also dissolve the U.S.’s top audit regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and fold it into the SEC.

Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said at the markup that his committee “will do its part to reduce the deficit and decrease direct spending so that Congress can enact pro-growth tax policies.”

Democrats offered more than three dozen amendments that were shot down by Republicans throughout the nine-hour markup. They also put up procedural hurdles that slowed down the start of the meeting.

Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Republicans on the committee were “co-signing” the Trump administration’s “destruction” by “helping Trump and co-president Elon Musk dismantle the agencies responsible for helping bring down costs," including the CFPB.

Democrats offered an array of amendments aimed at bolstering the CFPB, which has been a longtime GOP target. They also offered provisions aimed at boosting the supply of affordable housing, protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve and targeting the Trump family’s crypto businesses.

“We are here because Donald Trump feels that he and Elon Musk are not rich enough, and we need to $4.5 trillion of tax cuts,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.). “They’ve realized politically that they can’t do that by cutting social security and defense, and all that’s left is massive cuts to everything else. And so … the dutiful soldiers are marching forward to cut the things that are subject to the jurisdiction of this committee.”

Republicans shot down every amendment along party lines, often saying they were not germane to the underlying bill. In order for this bill to be able to pass the Senate without Democratic votes through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process, only policies that change spending or revenues can be included.

“The amendments are seeking to make policy changes that we simply cannot address today in this markup for reconciliation,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.). “Everything that we’re discussing and proposing in this bill has budgetary impacts, not policy impacts, and these budgetary impacts and savings are means to get our country back on track.”