The House on Wednesday passed legislation that would require independent agencies, such as the NCUA and CFPB, to submit rules to the Office of Management and Budget before they are published—essentially giving the president tight control of the rule-making process.
Voting 241-184, the House passed HR 1009, which now goes to the Senate. No companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate and Democrats are likely to force Republican supporters to obtain 60 votes for passage in that body.
If enacted, the legislation would give the administration the power to review controversial rules, such as the CFPB’s proposed rule on payday lending and the agency’s proposal to ban mandatory arbitration agreements before they are issued.
Agencies under direct control of the president already submit proposed and final rules to OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) before they are issued. And while presidents have encouraged independent agencies to submit rules to OMB, the agencies are not required to send them.
The NCUA does not send proposed rules to OMB, but does submit final rules to the agency. The CFPB, as an independent agency, also is not required to submit its rules for review.
Republicans have called that a loophole in the laws governing independent agencies.
“OIRA review is important to provide a double check on agencies rushing to promulgate rules,” the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said, in a report accompanying the legislation.
“Excluding independent agencies from the OIRA process means that numerous controversial and extremely costly regulations are issued without the second look by regulatory experts that OIRA review provides,” the committee continued.
But Democrats said the legislation effectively would allow the Trump Administration to block much-needed rules.
The bill “would empower Trump’s White House to block all of the independent financial agencies’ proposed actions to protect our economy,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
She continued, “government agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), would have to first receive the OK from Trump’s Administration, packed with Wall Street insiders, before they could protect the American public.”
