Dem lawmaker: Republicans ‘torched’ my bill

Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) is urging Democrats to oppose a bill he co-sponsored because he says House Republicans “put the torch to it.”

Heck had introduced a bipartisan bill that would create an advisory board at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for non-bank businesses.

The House Financial Services Committee approved the bill earlier this year on a 53 to 5 vote.

But Heck says his bill now includes an amendment from House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) that he can’t support.

The amendment would lower the CFPB’s budget cap by about $45 million in 2020 and by about $100 million in 2025.

“This is bad policy, bad precedent and completely unnecessary,” Heck wrote in a letter to his colleagues. “Jeb Hensarling put the torch to it.”

A senior Republican staffer said the bill is about “ensuring that small businesses have a voice.”

“Unfortunately, Denny Heck and other Democrats are more than willing to silence that voice if that means reducing the CFPB’s bloated, wasteful spending by 0.1 percent over the next decade,” the staffer said.

Republicans have criticized CFPB officials for how they’re managing their budget, including renovations to their new building. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law created the agency, which has faced criticism from the business community because it is not subject to Congressional appropriations.

“Democrats who argue that lowering the CFPB’s budget cap by 0.1 percent somehow undermines consumer protection need to be reminded the CFPB is currently spending 24 times that amount on extravagant renovations to a building it doesn’t even own,” the staffer said.

Heck wrote in his letter to lawmakers that Hensarling’s amendment is a “trial to see if the CFPB can be used as a piggy bank to pay for other priorities.”



”It is a test to see if Democrats will swallow poison pills in the goal of getting bipartisan bills passed,” Heck wrote. “It is an experiment to see how radically bills can be changed and still keep ‘yes’ votes in the name of consistency. They are trying to see if they can toy with us.”

The bill is expected to pass when it’s up for a vote on Wednesday, but it’s unclear if it will have a veto-proof majority should President Obama decide to veto the bill.