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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 21 WISCONSIN REPRESENTATIVE CONTINUES CFPB REFORM EFFORTS WITH SERIES OF PROPOSALS e Republicans' effort to reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continued with the introduction of a comprehensive reform package by U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin) in early March. Part of the package of CFPB reform proposals Duffy either sponsored or co-sponsored includes the bill introduced last month by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) that would replace the CFPB director with a bipartisan five-member committee. e flurry of legislation to reform the CFPB came swiftly following the testimony of the Bureau's director, Richard Cordray, before the House Committee on Financial Services on March 3. "After hearing testimony from Director Richard Cordray this week, I am convinced now more than ever that the CFPB is in dire need of structural reform," Duffy said. "He continues to stonewall Congress, he won't respond to Congressional inquiries, and why would he? We have no tools in the toolbox to hold the fortress that is the CFPB accountable." Other measures Duffy introduced last month to reform the CFPB include: e Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Act, which makes the CFPB subject to the regular appropriations process; the Consumer Right to Financial Privacy Act, which requires the Bureau to obtain consumers' permission before collecting data on them; the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act, which reduces the number of members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council that may overturn a CFPB ruling from two-thirds to a simple majority; and the CFPB Pay Fairness Act, which puts CFPB employees on the regular government pay scale (they currently set their own pay rate). "Protecting consumers is important to everyone," Duffy said. "However, this is an agency that is led by one man. It's an agency that makes rules and regulations that restrict access to credit for everyone while they collect data on consumers without their permission, and Congress can do nothing about it. It's time to bring some common-sense reforms to this agency; these bills will begin to do that." Republicans who view the CFPB as overreaching and unaccountable have tried to increase Congressional oversight for the CFPB ever since the Bureau was formed in 2011 out of the Dodd-Frank Act. ey have especially made a push for CFPB reform since they gained a majority in both the House and the Senate in November. Democrats have criticized Republicans' efforts to reform the CFPB and have repeatedly vowed to fight any legislative attempts at such reform. FED OIG'S REPORT ON ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION WITHIN CFPB MADE PUBLIC e Federal Reserve Inspector General made his findings of the investigation of discrimina- tion in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) public last month, stating the CFPB has made progress in combatting discrimination but still was work to do. Last month, legislation was introduced to replace the director of CFPB with a five-person committee to combat the alleged overreach of the Bureau, according to House Financial Services Commit- tee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). Allegations of workplace discrimination within the CFPB arose in 2013 when employees leaked documents to the media. Employees alleged they were given unfair evaluations based on gender, race, and age, not job performance. Head of the CFPB Richard Cordray admitted the employee evaluation system used in 2012 and 2013 was unfair and launched his own internal report last year. Cordray's report found black and Hispanic workers, those over age 40, those outside Washington, D.C., and those in the union were more likely to get bad performance evaluations under the system, which worsened their pay and career advancement prospects. e inspector general's review found in three of the CFPB's six divisions in fiscal year 2012, white employees received higher performance ratings than their black colleagues, and the same was true in two of the six divisions when it came to Hispanic co-workers. e report released in March found the CFPB's policies for promoting diversity and inclusion within its workforce fell short of what was necessary to achieve the goals set at the end of fiscal year 2013. While the inspector general's own review and the review of an outside consulting firm found there was a "statistically significant" dis- crepancy, there was no evidence of an intentional policy to target nonwhite, non-male employees, according to the report. "e results of the external consulting firm's analysis of the CFPB's fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013 performance ratings indicated statistically significant disparities among CFPB employees across certain demographic groups. However, these statistically significant differ- ences do not necessarily indicate discrimination and could be due to a wide variety of explana- tions, such as actual differences in employee performance," the report said. Hensarling said the report findings show the CFPB "is a very troubled bureaucracy" whose managers "seem to have a real problem when it comes to how they treat minority employees." "Each day, it becomes more apparent that the CFPB is an unaccountable Washington bureaucracy in need of real reforms," Hensarling said in a statement. e CFPB since scrapped the old evaluation system and said it has taken steps to improve diversity within its organization. "e CFPB appreciates the OIG's affirma- tion of diversity and inclusion efforts as critical to the overall development and performance of an organization. e CFPB concurs with the OIG's recommendations regarding additional policies and enhancements to the Bureau's diversity and inclusion efforts and has already made significant progress in addressing the recommendations since the close of the evalua- tion period in October 2014," the CFPB said in a statement in the report. "However, this is an agency that is led by one man. It's an agency that makes rules and regulations that restrict access to credit for everyone while they collect data on consumers without their permission, and Congress can do nothing about it. It's time to bring some common- sense reforms to this agency; these bills will begin to do that."

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