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GOP Lawmakers Caught Plagiarizing Bank Lobbyist Talking Points
"We bet it was super easy for Patrick McHenry and Andy Barr to decide their position on predatory overdraft fees, since all they did is copy and paste whatever Big Banks said."
Jan 24, 2024
A pair of Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee issued a statement last week criticizing a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal aimed at cracking down on predatory overdraft fees, claiming the rule would harm consumers.
But they didn't mention that parts of their criticism of the rule precisely mirrored the talking points of the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), a lobbying group that represents financial institutions that rake in huge profits by hitting their customers with often unexpected overdraft charges. The group's membership list includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo as well as smaller banks from around the country.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) said in their statement that the CFPB's rule reflects "the Biden administration's attempts to mandate one-size-fits-all consumer financial products and services."
"We urge the CFPB to withdraw this misguided proposal that harms the very consumers the agency was created to protect," the GOP lawmakers added.
As Politico's Caitlin Oprysko pointed out late Tuesday, McHenry and Barr's response bears a close resemblance to language used by CBA president Lindsey Johnson, who warned the consumer agency's "misguided proposal" and "one-size-fits-all approach" could "undo years of progress" that banks have purportedly made in reforming their overdraft policies.
"Shilling for their financial industry megadonors has become so involuntary and routine that they're now literally copying and pasting talking points from banking lobbyists."
The similarities between the Republican lawmakers' response to the rule and CBA talking points become more glaring further down in McHenry and Barr's statement, which says that "consumers must proactively opt-in to use overdraft services."
Oprysko observed that the CBA uses the same exact wording on a website it launched earlier this month in opposition to the CFPB's overdraft rule, which the agency estimates could save U.S. consumers more than $3.5 billion in fees per year.
"Consumers must proactively opt-in to use overdraft services," the website reads, adding that "consumers can discontinue overdraft services at any time."
McHenry and Barr similarly say that consumers "can discontinue these services at any time." The lawmakers and CBA also "both highlight the same 2023 survey finding about consumer sentiment toward overdraft services and the same quote from a Biden administration financial regulator," Oprysko noted.
A spokesperson for CBA told Politico that the lobbying organization did not coordinate with McHenry or Barr on their responses to the rule but that "we like their message and agree with it." A Barr spokesperson told the outlet that the responses were so similar because the CFPB's proposal is "clearly problematic."
Liz Zelnick, director of the Economic Security and Corporate Power program at the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement Wednesday that "for Chairman McHenry and Rep. Barr, shilling for their financial industry megadonors has become so involuntary and routine that they're now literally copying and pasting talking points from banking lobbyists and trying to pass it off as their own."
"But what's more unethical is that McHenry and Barr continue to claim consumers should be grateful for hidden and excessive overdraft fees when their only real purpose is to pad profits for big banks and credit unions," said Zelnick. "McHenry and Barr can appease bank CEOs and lobbyists all they want by parroting industry misinformation, but they should at least be honest that they're doing it at the expense of consumers, not to their benefit. The fact remains, the Biden administration crackdown on excessive overdraft penalties like a $42 charge on a gallon of milk will directly benefit consumers by lowering their costs."
According to the CFPB, around 23 million U.S. households pay overdraft fees every year, often getting hit with $35 charges even though overdrafts are typically less than $26.
The agency said in a statement last week that its rule would "close an outdated loophole that exempts overdraft lending services from longstanding provisions of the Truth in Lending Act and other consumer financial protection laws." The rule would apply to banks with more than $10 billion in assets.
The proposed rule garnered enthusiastic praise from consumer advocacy organizations.
Kimberly Fountain, consumer field manager at Americans for Financial Reform, said that "curbing abusive overdraft fees will help stop Wall Street from padding its bottom line with the hard-earned money of millions of families in the United States."
"Overdraft fees are not so much a useful service as they are a lucrative profit center underwritten by the most economically vulnerable consumers," Fountain added.
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House GOP Drops Jordan's Speaker Candidacy After Third Failed Floor Vote
"It is embarrassing that MAGA House Republicans continue to let the petty sniping and infighting in their own party prevent them from working with the president," President Joe Biden's campaign said.
Oct 20, 2023
In what could be the final nail in the coffin of Ohio GOP Congressman Jim Jordan's speakership bid, U.S. House Republicans on Friday secretly voted to drop the far-right 2020 election denier's candidacy, leaving the fractured party without a nominee for the chamber's top job more than two weeks after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's ouster.
The clandestine GOP move—in which 112 Republicans elected to drop Jordan and only 86 supported his bid—came after Jordan, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, on Friday failed to garner enough support in a third House floor vote on his proposed speakership.
Jordan lost three Republican supporters since the last roll call vote, finishing with 194 of 217 required votes. All Democrats present voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who received 210 votes.
"The third time was not the charm," said Emily Trifone, deputy communications director for the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
The Hill reported that the GOP conference on Thursday rejected a proposal to temporarily appoint Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), an apparent last-ditch attempt to resume House business during the unresolved struggle for a new leader.
Responding to the third failed vote on Jordan, McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, "We are in a very bad place right now."
In a statement, President Joe Biden's reelection campaign slammed "MAGA House Republicans' self-inflicted chaos and chronic inability to govern."
"It is embarrassing that MAGA House Republicans continue to let the petty sniping and infighting in their own party prevent them from working with the president on bipartisan national security priorities," the statement added. "Voters will remember how when world events called for American leadership, President Biden stepped up and MAGA House Republicans humiliated themselves and failed the American people."
It's back to the drawing board for House Republicans, who have until Sunday to declare speaker candidates ahead of Monday's scheduled restart of the selection process.
"It's a pleasure to get to vote against Jim Jordan every single day, but I never thought that would be my job," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) quipped on social media. "Come on GOP, let's get back to work."
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Jim Jordan Concedes Speaker Election—For Now—Backing More Power for Patrick McHenry
Republicans will hold an internal vote Thursday on whether to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), but some allies of Jordan indicated they would oppose the move.
Oct 19, 2023
Far-right U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, confronting two failed attempts to garner the support needed to be elected speaker of the House, intends to back a plan to empower Rep. Patrick McHenry—named speaker pro tempore earlier this month—to act as a temporary speaker until at least January 3, according to new reporting on Thursday.
The House held two votes for House speaker on Tuesday and Wednesday, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) securing the support of all 212 Democrats—putting him just five votes away from the leadership position—and Jordan losing support from the first vote to the second. Twenty of his Republican colleagues opposed his bid on Tuesday and 22 voted against him the following day.
The Ohio Republican, a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a key player in efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election, will attempt to build support for the remainder of the year if the party moves forward with the plan to empower McHenry (R-N.C.), who currently has no authority to conduct legislative business.
Jordan and allies who want to see him leading House Republicans have been accused of using "bullying" tactics in his effort to secure votes. The wife of Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) received messages threatening her husband's political career and accusing him of causing "chaos" and failing to be "a team player" after Bacon voted against Jordan.
Fox News interviews with Jordan opponents have had a similar tenor, while Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) reported receiving "credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls" and Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) said he and his family got similar threats.
Republicans planned to hold an internal vote on whether to empower McHenry, the House Financial Services Committee chair and a close ally of ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), on Thursday afternoon.
Jeffries told reporters that he and other Democrats are also considering backing McHenry, saying the party wants to "stop Jim Jordan, who is a clear and present danger to our democracy."
The minority leader told members of the party that they should only support elevating a temporary speaker if they voted to certify the 2020 election, have a record of "standing up to extremism" and "governing," and supported the debt ceiling deal reached by the Biden administration and McCarthy in May, which was condemned by progressives as it scaled back food and housing aid, educational funding, and an Internal Revenue Service budget increase meant to stop tax evasion by the wealthiest Americans.
Progressive strategist Sawyer Hackett cautioned against some suggestions that McHenry would lead the party as a so-called "moderate."
"Let's be crystal clear: Patrick McHenry is only moderate in contrast to Jim Jordan," said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "He's tightly interwoven with the biggest banks—from pushing to undercut tougher capital standards to critiquing the [Securities and Exchange Commission]."
"His loyalty lies with corporate America," Gilbert said. "Not with the American people."
Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the effort to push McCarthy out of the speakership earlier this month and supported Jordan's bid, indicated he would not back the plan to empower McHenry.
Another Jordan ally, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), said the move would effectively "give the Democrats control of a Republican majority."
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CFPB Has Returned $240 Million to Constituents of GOP Lawmakers Attacking Agency
"These lawmakers," said one advocate, "should answer to their constituents why they'd rather represent their industry donors at the expense of everyday families."
Aug 09, 2023
Residents of U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's home state of North Carolina won back more than $24 million from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Civil Penalty Fund between 2012 and 2022—but that hasn't stopped the Republican lawmaker from spearheading an effort to significantly weaken the agency.
Government watchdog Accountable.US on Wednesday released a report detailing the money that the CFPB's Civil Penalty Fund, which compensates victims of misconduct by financial companies, has returned to the constituents of Republican lawmakers who are intent on attacking the agency—as well as the donations those same politicians have taken from the industry the CFPB regulates.
" Republicans in Congress should be celebrating the fact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recouped billions of dollars for families who've been ripped off by bad actors in the financial industry," said Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable.US' Economic Security & Corporate Power program. "Instead, many Republicans are rooting for efforts to defund and defang the nation's top consumer advocate."
The group's report shows that in 10 states including North Carolina, Arizona, South Carolina, and Michigan, constituents have been awarded compensation totaling more than $240 million from the CFPB's fund.
In North Carolina, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has joined McHenry in attacking the CFPB, accusing the bureau of "undertaking a name-and-shame campaign to coerce banks who were following the established prudential standards for the crime of listening to their previous federal regulators."
Judging from his attacks on the CFPB, said Accountable.US, Tillis "would prefer if tens of thousands of North Carolinians were vulnerable to scams from the likes of predatory lenders and greedy big banks."
Both lawmakers were among those who signed an amicus brief in support of a federal lawsuit brought by the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), a group that represents the predatory payday lending industry, which aims to strike down the bureau's funding structure through the Federal Reserve. The group and a number of Republicans have claimed the CFPB should be funded through appropriations passed by Congress.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case when it reconvenes in October.
Accountable.US found that in the 10 states in its report, the Republicans who signed the amicus brief have received more than $51 million from people and political action committees affiliated with financial companies regulated by the CFPB.
McHenry has taken more than $5.4 million from the industry, while Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has received more than $4.8 million. Scott has denounced the bureau as "an agency that lacks transparency and seeks to operate beyond its jurisdiction."
Other lawmakers featured in the group's report include Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has taken more than $315,000 from the industry and has called the CFPB a "rogue organization" that "ought to be zeroed out"; Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who has repeatedly proposed legislation to gut the agency and has taken $3.9 million from the industry; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who told a group of lobbyists in 2017 that he would overturn a CFPB rule preventing bans on class-action lawsuits against Wall Street companies. McConnell has taken more than $9.2 million from the industry during his career.
"The CFPB helped put money back into the pockets of over 27,000 Kentuckians," said Accountable.US, "but McConnell would rather represent his industry donors in Senate at their expense."
The agency has returned nearly $20 million to Michigan residents, $45.7 million to New Yorkers, and $28.2 million to Pennsylvanians—but Republican lawmakers who represent those states have also signed the amicus brief in the CFSA case and have collectively taken millions of dollars from the industry the CFPB is tasked with regulating.
"The industry's goal," said Accountable.US, is to "leave everyday families vulnerable to tricks, debt traps, discrimination, and outright scams from the likes of predatory lenders and greedy big banks."
The group's report suggested that goal is shared by many GOP lawmakers.
"These lawmakers," said Zelnick, "should answer to their constituents why they'd rather represent their industry donors at the expense of everyday families."
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11 New GOP Picks for House Financial Oversight Panel Took Over $6.1 Million From Wall Street
"The MAGA majority in charge of overseeing the financial industry are completely awash in Wall Street money," said one analyst. "Consumers beware as financial scammers rejoice."
Jan 12, 2023
A new Accountable.US analysis published Wednesday revealed that the 11 new Republicans tapped to serve on the House Financial Services Committee collectively accepted more than $6 million from Wall Street during the 2022 election cycle, leaving them ready to do the "industry's bidding."
The HFSC "has jurisdiction over issues pertaining to the economy, the banking system, housing, insurance, and securities and exchanges," the panel's website reads. "Additionally, the committee also has jurisdiction over monetary policy, international finance, international monetary organizations, and efforts to combat terrorist financing."
Newly elected GOP lawmakers nominated to serve on the HFSC have taken nearly $6.2 million in campaign cash from the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) industries that the panel is tasked with refereeing, Accountable.US researchers found.
The watchdog group broke down how much money each new Republican nominee for the HFSC received during the 2022 election cycle from the FIRE industries they are set to oversee:
- Rep. Monica De La Cruz (Texas): $517,145 (plus $5,934 during her unsuccessful 2020 campaign);
- Rep. Byron Donalds (Florida): $704,320;
- Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (Wisc.): $332,788;
- Rep. Mike Flood (Neb.): $237,449;
- Rep. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.): $1,075,969;
- Rep. Erin Houchin (Ind.): $109,876;
- Rep. Young Kim (Calif.): $2,377,995;
- Rep. Mike Lawler (N.Y.): $60,466;
- Rep. Dan Meuser (Pa.): $451,249;
- Rep. Zach Nunn (Iowa): $230,717;
- Rep. Andy Ogles (Tenn.): $89,134.
"History has shown when conservative politicians in the pocket of Wall Street banks and predatory lenders seize power, everyday consumers are left more vulnerable to greedy financial industry behavior," Liz Zelnick, director of the Economic Security and Corporate Power program at Accountable.US, said in a statement. "History is about to repeat itself as the MAGA majority in charge of overseeing the financial industry are completely awash in Wall Street money."
Notably, Donalds and Ogles were part of the far-right contingent that extracted anti-worker concessions from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during his drawn-out battle for the speaker's gavel.
"History has shown when conservative politicians in the pocket of Wall Street banks and predatory lenders seize power, everyday consumers are left more vulnerable to greedy financial industry behavior. History is about to repeat itself."
When announcing all 30 new and returning GOP lawmakers recommended to serve on the financial oversight panel, HFSC Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) claimed that "the talent and real-world expertise of this group is an embarrassment of riches." He added, "I look forward to working with them to deliver on House Republicans' commitment to America."
The House Republican Steering Committee's recommendations for membership on the HFSC will soon be considered by the full party caucus and then the entire House of Representatives, where the GOP's majority makes approval likely.
Over the course of his career, McHenry has raked in more than $9.2 million in political donations from the FIRE industries while advancing "priorities written by and for Wall Street, big banks, and predatory lenders at the expense of everyday American families," Accountable.US noted.
For example, McHenry cheered in October when a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit—which former President Donald Trump pushed in an even more conservative direction by appointing numerous far-right judges, including the trio of panel members—ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure is unconstitutional.
In response to a lawsuit brought by the payday lending industry, the 5th Circuit judges—led by Cory Wilson, who received at least $10,500 in campaign cash from Wall Street when he was a Republican candidate for and member of the Mississippi House of Representatives between 2014 and 2018—argued that the CFPB's structure is unlawful because its funding comes from the Federal Reserve System rather than Congress, a feature that seeks to ensure the agency's independence.
McHenry said that he was "glad to see" the ruling and expressed his desire to bring the CFPB "under the appropriations process," where it would be vulnerable to cuts from a hostile GOP.
"Chairman McHenry, who's made no secret of his intent to ignore bad industry actors and obstruct federal efforts to protect consumers from things like junk fees, now has all the backing he needs to get payback against the pro-consumer Biden administration on behalf of his biggest donors," Zelnick said Wednesday. "Consumers beware as financial scammers rejoice."
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