Thirteen months after Senate Republicans warned President Obama that a new consumer finance watchdog’s structure gives an overly broad mandate and unchecked powers to its director, that agency is now involved in higher education.
In a letter dated May 2, 2011, the senators wrote that the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) “will have vast rulemaking, supervisory, investigative and enforcement powers and the authority to regulate any person or business that offers or sells a ‘financial product or service.’
“This authority will extend not just to traditional financial institutions, but also potentially to thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses,” they added, advising the president that they would not support any nominee to the post absent structural reforms.
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