CFPB問題と共和党の妨害活動（そして背後の札束を背負ったロビー活動）
7月16日には、CFPBの局長にコードレイがなることを上院は承認したという点については前回のこのブログで述べた。これはその直前の状況である。
共和党は次のような対案を出していた。
(1) 1人の局長ではなく、5人の委員会（それは各党の指導部が決める）により合議制にする。
(2) 運用のための資金は予算とし、議会の承認を必要とするものにする（いまはFRBの資金の一部を用いるというかたちになっている。
（the Fed, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
は独立した資金をもって活動。
the SEC and CFTC...予算制度であり、議会の承認が必要。)
(3)その活動は、銀行監督機関の委員会での多数決に服するものとする。
興味深いのは、43名の銀行サイドの議員が受け取っていた感謝は総計143億円に達していることが判明している（アメリカではこれは違法ではない）。
アメリカの政治の動向を知るには、このロビー活動のすごさ（提供資金の巨額さ、そしてコマーシャル攻勢）を知る必要がある。
＊＊＊
Wall Street's 43 Best Friends on Capitol Hill
By Jim Lardner
July 11, 2013 RSS Feed Print
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., and GOP leaders arrive for a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, following a Republican strategy session. From left are, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen, John Thune, R-S.D, and McConnell.
In its short life, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken steps to rid the mortgage market of loans designed to self-destruct; shielded military families against various financial scams; warned auto lenders against practices that jack up the price of credit for African-Americans, Latinos, women or seniors; returned nearly half a billion dollars to consumers cheated by credit card companies; and begun to tackle a host of other problems, including predatory payday loans, excessive bank overdraft fees, abusive debt collection practices and the plight of students and families trapped in high-cost private education loans.
It has been doing its rightful job, in short, and has thereby earned a spot in the cross-hairs of some of the worst elements of the banking and lending world and their friends on Capitol Hill.
"If I had my way, we wouldn't have the agency at all," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reminded an audience of bankers several months ago. McConnell has not had his way. Yet. But three years after the CFPB was approved by Congress and affirmed by the president, to the applause of a large majority of voters regardless of party, McConnell and nearly all his fellow Republican Senators are out to squelch it – by refusing to confirm a director unless their demands are met.
There is thankfully little sign of a willingness to yield on the part of the White House or the Senate as a whole right now. But since paying ransom is always tempting in a hostage situation, it is worth examining the so-called "commonsense reforms" put forward by McConnell & Co., and asking what they would actually do to the CFPB.
[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should the Dodd-Frank Act Be Repealed?]
"Reform" No. 1: Its director would be replaced with a five-member commission appointed by party leaders. These bodies have a track record of quarrelsomeness and reluctance to stand up to corporate power; moreover, in dysfunctional times like the present, they tend to wind up with only four confirmed members who can't agree on much of anything. And with a committee in charge, it becomes much harder to hold individuals accountable for their decisions and actions.
"Reform" No. 2: The CFPB would have to come to Congress every year for its funding, rather than continue to receive a small, capped share of the budget of the Federal Reserve, where the agency is housed. Each of the other bank regulators – the Fed, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – has some form of independent funding as insulation against political shenanigans. By contrast, the two non-bank financial regulators that already fall under the appropriations process, the SEC and CFTC, have faced massive problems.
Under an exemplary chairman, the CFTC has made admirable progress in reining in the crazed derivatives trading that nearly crashed the world economy in 2008. Yet, as a reward for that success, Chairman Gary Gensler has seen his agency starved for resources and bullied by industry-coddling legislators. And for good measure, the CFPB faces…
・・・
