On Wednesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a formal complaint against the Biden Administration, claiming that the administration’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has exceeded its authority by forcibly implementing various new regulations to combat alleged “discrimination” in the private market.
The Daily Caller reports that the Chamber was joined in its complaint by several other business advocacy groups. The complaint targets new guidance issued in March that expanded the CFPB’s mandate, under the Dodd-Frank Act, to actively regulate “unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices.”
Although CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the announcement statement that discrimination as a whole is “unambiguously unfair,” the Chamber of Commerce and other pro-business groups claim that the new regulations “consistently treat ‘unfairness’ and ‘discrimination’” as “distinct concepts.”
“The CFPB is pursuing an ideological agenda that goes well beyond what is authorized by law and the Chamber will not hesitate to hold them accountable,” said Neil Bradley, Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in the Chamber’s press release announcing the complaint.
The Chamber pointed to an analysis conducted in June of this year by one of its fellow plaintiffs, the American Bankers Association (ABA), which determined that the CFPB is tasked with enforcing federal law in order to guarantee “fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory access to credit.” However, if the two words “unfair” and “discrimination” were supposed to overlap, then this would have been specified by Congress rather than tasked to the CFPB.
In response, the CFPB issued its own statement: “The CFPB is one of the most transparent regulatory agencies, and voluntarily publishes exam manuals laying out how it will assess banks’ compliance with the federal laws Congress charged the Bureau with enforcing.”
“The CFPB’s exam manuals allow banks to ensure they are following the law, and help make certain that consumers are receiving the fair and equitable treatment they deserve,” the CFPB spokesman added.