IB 
Union Calendar No. 35 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1500 
[Report No. 116–57, Part I] 
To require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to meet its statutory 
purpose, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 5, 2019 
Ms. WATERS (for herself, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. 
VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. CLAY, Mr. DAVID SCOTT 
of Georgia, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. 
HIMES, Mr. FOSTER, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. HECK, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. GON-
ZALEZ of Texas, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Ms. TLAIB, 
Ms. PORTER, Mrs. AXNE, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. 
WEXTON, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. DEAN, Mr. 
GARCI´A of Illinois, and Ms. GARCIA of Texas) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in 
addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
MAY 10, 2019 
Reported from the Committee on Financial Services with an amendment 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
MAY 10, 2019 
Committee on Education and Labor discharged; committed to the Committee 
of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 5, 2019] 
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A BILL 
To require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to 
meet its statutory purpose, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Consumers First Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress. 
Sec. 3. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 
Sec. 4. Conforming amendments. 
Sec. 5. Executive and administration powers. 
Sec. 6. Offices of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 
Sec. 7. Consumer Advisory Board reforms. 
Sec. 8. Effective date. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 
Consumer Protection Act (Public Law 111–203) 
(‘‘Dodd-Frank’’), was signed into law on July 21, 
2010, in order to, among other things, advance the 
goals of protecting consumers from predatory finan-
cial services practices and products that led to the 
2007–2009 financial crisis. 
(2) Title X of Dodd-Frank established a new 
Federal independent watchdog, known as the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Bureau (‘‘Consumer Bu-
reau’’), with broad authority to ensure that all hard-
working consumers are given clear, accurate informa-
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tion that they need to shop for mortgages, credit 
cards, and other consumer financial products or serv-
ices and to protect consumers from hidden fees, abu-
sive terms, and other unfair, deceptive, or abusive 
acts or practices through strong implementation and 
enforcement of Federal consumer financial laws. 
(3) Before the Consumer Bureau was established, 
Federal financial regulators were tasked with the dual 
responsibilities of supervising institutions for safety 
and soundness and compliance with consumer protec-
tions under Federal consumer financial laws. These 
agencies often prioritized the profitability of their reg-
ulated entities over the protection of consumers, even 
when institutions were found to have engaged in 
practices detrimental to their own customers’ finan-
cial well-being. 
(4) Congress purposefully created the inde-
pendent Consumer Bureau within the Federal Reserve 
System to address past regulatory gaps in our coun-
try’s financial regulatory regime—gaps that resulted 
in the most severe global financial crisis since the 
Great Depression. Among other things, Federal finan-
cial regulators were too reluctant to exercise their 
rulemaking, supervisory, and enforcement authorities 
to protect consumers from the misdeeds of the Con-
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sumer Bureau’s regulated entities. In creating the 
Consumer Bureau, Congress explicitly laid out in 
statute the Consumer Bureau’s purpose, five objec-
tives, and six primary functions. Specifically: 
(A) Section 1021(a) of Dodd-Frank states 
that the Consumer Bureau, ‘‘shall seek to imple-
ment and, where applicable, enforce Federal con-
sumer financial law consistently for the purpose 
of ensuring that all consumers have access to 
markets for consumer financial products and 
services and that markets for consumer financial 
products and services are fair, transparent, and 
competitive’’. 
(B) Section 1021(b) of Dodd-Frank author-
izes the Consumer Bureau, ‘‘to exercise its au-
thorities under Federal consumer financial law 
for the purposes of ensuring that, with respect to 
consumer financial products and services—(1) 
consumers are provided with timely and under-
standable information to make responsible deci-
sions about financial transactions; (2) consumers 
are protected from unfair, deceptive, or abusive 
acts and practices and from discrimination; (3) 
outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome 
regulations are regularly identified and ad-
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dressed in order to reduce unwarranted regu-
latory burdens; (4) Federal consumer financial 
law is enforced consistently, without regard to 
the status of a person as a depository institution, 
in order to promote fair competition; and (5) 
markets for consumer financial products and 
services operate transparently and efficiently to 
facilitate access and innovation.’’. 
(C) Section 1021(c) of Dodd-Frank estab-
lishes the primary functions of the Consumer 
Bureau to be, ‘‘(1) conducting financial edu-
cation programs; (2) collecting, investigating, 
and responding to consumer complaints; (3) col-
lecting, researching, monitoring, and publishing 
information relevant to the functioning of mar-
kets for consumer financial products and services 
to identify risks to consumers and the proper 
functioning of such markets; (4) subject to sec-
tions 1024 through 1026, supervising covered 
persons for compliance with Federal consumer fi-
nancial law, and taking appropriate enforcement 
action to address violations of Federal consumer 
financial law; (5) issuing rules, orders, and 
guidance implementing Federal consumer finan-
cial law; and (6) performing such support ac-
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tivities as may be necessary or useful to facili-
tate the other functions of the Bureau.’’. 
(5) In doing so, Congress explicitly laid out these 
consumer-focused purpose, objectives, and primary 
functions for the Consumer Bureau to ensure that all 
consumers and all communities are protected. This is 
of extreme importance to communities of color who 
have been disproportionately impacted by the inequi-
ties of the financial system, resulting in an extreme 
racial wealth divide. Decades of segregation and dis-
crimination have prevented consumers of colors from 
amassing wealth equal to their white counterparts, 
while predatory financial practices of have stripped 
consumers of color of their nominal existing wealth. 
For example, over the past 30 years, the average 
wealth of White families has grown by 84 percent— 
1.2 times the rate of growth for the Latino population 
and three times the rate of growth for the Black popu-
lation. In light of historical practices and current-day 
disparities in banking and lending practices, the Con-
sumer Bureau plays a key role in protecting commu-
nities of color from wealth-stripping financial prod-
ucts and ensuring their right to wealth building op-
portunities. The agency’s enforcement actions in auto 
lending, mortgages, and credit cards, and its rule-
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making efforts have sought to address the predatory 
financial products such as payday loans and prepaid 
cards that are prolific in communities of color. The 
Consumer Bureau is essential in protecting vulnerable 
communities from discriminatory financial practices 
that has both perpetuated and exacerbated the racial 
wealth gap. 
(6) Under Dodd-Frank, the Deputy Director of 
the Consumer Bureau shall serve as the Acting Direc-
tor in the absence or unavailability of the Director, 
until the President appoints and the Senate confirms 
a new Director. Despite the plain letter of the law es-
tablishing a succession order to fill a vacancy in the 
Director’s position and the clear legislative history 
underscoring the importance of having an inde-
pendent Federal consumer-focused agency, when the 
Consumer Bureau Director Richard Cordray resigned 
in November 2017, President Trump refused to recog-
nize the Deputy Director as the rightful head of the 
agency and instead installed Mr. Mick Mulvaney, the 
Director of the White House Office of Management 
and Budget, to serve as the Consumer Bureau’s Act-
ing Director. This appointment of a White House 
cabinet official to run the Consumer Bureau raises 
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profound conflict of interest questions and under-
mines the vital independent nature of the agency. 
(7) Additionally, the position of Acting Director 
is, by its nature, intended to be a temporary assign-
ment to maintain the status quo at an agency and to 
ensure the agency is fulfilling its statutory purpose 
and mandates, until the President appoints, and the 
Senate confirms a permanent Director. Nevertheless, 
during his tenure, Mr. Mulvaney instituted drastic 
and severe changes to the Consumer Bureau’s daily 
operations and priorities contrary to the agency’s 
statutory purpose and mandates. 
(8) The daily operations of a Federal agency are 
guided by its official mission contained in its long- 
term strategic plan. The Consumer Bureau’s mission 
should embrace both the spirit and plain letter of the 
law by fully recognizing the agency’s statutory pur-
pose, objectives, and functions. It is troubling that the 
Consumer Bureau, under Mr. Mulvaney, issued a 
Strategic Plan for Fiscal Year (‘‘FY’’) 2018–FY 2022 
that appears to deemphasize the Consumer Bureau’s 
core mandate under section 1021(a) of Dodd-Frank 
to, ‘‘enforce Federal consumer financial law consist-
ently for the purpose of ensuring that all consumers 
have access to markets for consumer financial prod-
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ucts and services’’, by not referencing the importance 
of enforcement in its mission. Instead, it emphasizes 
financial education by stating that the agency’s new 
mission is, ‘‘[t]o regulate the offering and provision 
of consumer financial products or services under the 
Federal consumer financial laws and to educate and 
empower consumers to make better informed financial 
decisions’’. This is in stark contrast from the Con-
sumer Bureau’s Strategic Plan for FY 2013–FY 2017, 
which stated that the agency’s mission is helping, 
‘‘consumer finance markets work by making rules 
more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing 
those rules, and by empowering consumers to take 
more control over their economic lives’’ (emphasis 
added). 
(9) Mr. Mulvaney has been praised by the White 
House for his efforts to undermine the Consumer Bu-
reau, with one anonymous advisor acknowledging in 
a July 24, 2018, Politico article that, ‘‘His mission 
was to blow that up, which he has. He is very well- 
suited to the chaos.’’. Mr. Mulvaney’s misguided ac-
tions have included, among other things— 
(A) stopping payments from the Civil Pen-
alty Fund to harmed consumers; 
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(B) trying to reduce the Consumer Bureau’s 
funding and staffing by initially requesting $0 
be transferred from the Federal Reserve Board of 
Governors to carry out the agency’s work, impos-
ing a freeze on hiring professional career staff, 
and by arbitrarily directing staff to cut the 
agency’s budget by 1⁄5; 
(C) politicizing the work of the Consumer 
Bureau by making unusual efforts to fill the 
independent agency with political appointees; 
(D) reducing the Consumer Bureau’s en-
forcement work, including taking only six en-
forcement actions in the first three quarters of 
2018 (compared with 54 enforcement actions 
taken by the agency in 2015, 42 enforcement ac-
tions in 2016 and 36 enforcement actions in 
2017), and dropping existing lawsuits and inves-
tigations into predatory payday lenders; 
(E) taking steps that would undermine ef-
forts to promote fair lending and combat dis-
criminatory practices, including by hiring, and 
later refusing to remove, a political appointee 
with a history of racist written commentary to 
oversee the Office of Supervision, Enforcement, 
and Fair Lending, stripping away the enforce-
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ment powers of the Office of Fair Lending and 
Equal Opportunity, seeking to curb the Con-
sumer Bureau’s data collection under the Home 
Mortgage Disclosure Act, and indicating the 
Consumer Bureau would reconsider its approach 
toward enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity 
Act; 
(F) changing the role of the Office of Stu-
dents and Young Consumers and, according to 
an August 27, 2018, resignation letter from Seth 
Frotman, the Consumer Bureau’s former Assist-
ant Director and Student Loan Ombudsman, 
‘‘when new evidence came to light showing that 
the nation’s largest banks were ripping off stu-
dents on campuses across the country by sad-
dling them with legally dubious account fees, Bu-
reau leadership suppressed the publication of a 
report prepared by Bureau staff’’; 
(G) abandoning the accepted and efficient 
practice of having its examiners review, as part 
of their routine examinations, creditors’ compli-
ance with the Military Lending Act in order to 
ensure the detection and assessment of risky ac-
tivities that could jeopardize vital protections 
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provided to active-duty servicemembers and their 
families; 
(H) creating an Office of Cost Benefit Anal-
ysis that prioritizes businesses’ expenses over 
harm caused to consumers, and unduly con-
strains oversight of the Consumer Bureau’s regu-
lated entities; 
(I) freezing data collection to the detriment 
of supervision and enforcement; 
(J) seeking to block the publication of the 
nature of consumers’ complaints and how enti-
ties resolved them in the publicly available and 
transparent Consumer Complaint Database; 
(K) restricting key input and feedback from 
a wide range of external stakeholders by effec-
tively terminating members’ positions on three 
advisory boards, including the statutorily man-
dated Consumer Advisory Board; 
(L) proposing policies, including those re-
garding no-action letters, model disclosure pilot 
projects, and product sandboxes, that could put 
many kinds of financial institutions in an en-
forcement-free zone, letting bad actors that harm 
consumers off the hook entirely from enforcement, 
and allowing them to ignore the law; and 
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(M) neglecting to impose promptly any civil 
money penalty on a bank when it was found to 
be, among other things, improperly obtaining 
consumer reports and furnishing to consumer re-
porting agencies inaccurate information about 
consumers’ credit. 
(10) The repeated efforts under Mr. Mulvaney’s 
leadership to hamstring the good work, passion, com-
mitment, and the capacity of dedicated professional, 
career Consumer Bureau staff to fulfill the agency’s 
statutory mission has likely contributed to low em-
ployee morale. According to a government-wide an-
nual survey published in December 2018 that was 
conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership 
for Public Service, the Consumer Bureau experienced 
the largest decline in employee morale for a govern-
ment agency of its size. A workplace with low morale 
undermines, among other things, the agency’s ability 
to hold bad actors accountable when they harm con-
sumers, and if unaddressed, will distort the func-
tioning of fair and competitive consumer market-
places. 
(11) Despite the fact that the agency has been re-
ferred to as the Consumer Financial Protection Bu-
reau since it was created in 2010, Mr. Mulvaney 
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opted to change the agency’s well-known name. Al-
though this decision is supposedly intended to ensure 
that the agency is in compliance with Dodd-Frank, 
when this change is viewed in conjunction with the 
other detrimental actions to undermine the effective-
ness of the agency, it can only be interpreted as an 
attempt to reduce the public’s awareness of, and sig-
nificant support for, the agency’s role as the top Fed-
eral consumer cop as well as to obscure the public’s 
ability to easily identify the appropriate Federal 
agency to contact when faced with predatory behavior 
by financial actors. As such, while some may view 
this particular decision as minor, the action served as 
an important symbolic and literal maneuver by the 
Trump Administration, through its appointment of 
Mr. Mulvaney, to diminish and undermine the con-
sumer-focused mission of the Consumer Bureau. Di-
rector Kathy Kraninger, who was duly nominated by 
the President and confirmed by the Senate, an-
nounced plans in an email to staff on December 19, 
2018, to reverse course and return to utilizing the 
agency’s well-known name. However, questions re-
main regarding how this change will be implemented 
and to what extent the agency may continue to utilize 
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Mr. Mulvaney’s preferred name in certain cir-
cumstances. 
(12) During Mr. Mulvaney’s more than 12- 
month tenure running the agency, he only appeared 
once before the House Financial Services Committee 
to discuss his activities at the Consumer Bureau. This 
is despite the fact that the law requires, at a min-
imum, the Director’s testimony before the Committee 
semi-annually. This weak congressional oversight 
under the direction of the previous Republican Major-
ity pales in comparison to their oversight of the Con-
sumer Bureau during former Director Richard 
Cordray’s tenure. During Director Cordray’s tenure, 
he and other senior Consumer Bureau officials testi-
fied before Congress more than 60 times; the agency 
was compelled to produce more than 200,000 pages of 
documents in response to over 90 letters of inquiry; 
more than 20 subpoenas were sent to the Consumer 
Bureau; and several of the Consumer Bureau’s former 
and current employees were compelled to sit for depo-
sitions over 21 days, that lasted 136 hours, and pro-
duced 3,194 pages of transcripts. 
(13) Dodd-Frank gives the Director of the Con-
sumer Bureau broad administrative and executive 
powers to, among other things: fix the number of, and 
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appoint and direct, all employees of the agency; direct 
the establishment and maintenance of divisions or 
other offices within the agency; determine the char-
acter of, and the necessity for, the obligations and ex-
penditure of funds; and the use and expenditure of 
funds. These powers, however, are required to be exer-
cised in a manner consistent with carrying out the 
responsibilities under Title X of Dodd-Frank, which 
includes complying with the enumerated Federal con-
sumer financial laws under the Title, and satisfying 
the obligations in other applicable laws. Mr. 
Mulvaney’s destructive actions have demonstrated the 
need for legislation to reorient the Director’s discre-
tionary authority to ensure the maintenance of all 
statutorily mandated policies, functions, and offices of 
the Consumer Bureau regardless of who is leading the 
agency. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—The following is the sense 
of Congress: 
(1) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
should meet its statutory purpose in a transparent 
and accountable manner by operating in a way that 
is consistent with both the spirit and plain letter of 
the law. This includes the agency fully carrying out 
the agency’s statutory purpose, objectives, and func-
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tions, and the agency being transparent, timely, and 
responsive to all requests from Congress. 
(2) Dodd-Frank underscores that the agency is 
designed to serve as an independent Federal agency 
that is primarily focused on the protection of all con-
sumers, without any undue influence of partisan 
whims and special industry interests, in carrying out 
its responsibilities and duties. 
(3) The official name of the agency should be 
consistent with this mandate, and the agency should, 
figuratively and literally, put ‘‘Consumers’’ first by 
using its better-known name as the ‘‘Consumer Fi-
nancial Protection Bureau’’. Thus, any remaining 
utilization by the agency of the name, ‘‘Bureau of 
Consumer Financial Protection’’, or the acronym 
‘‘BCFP’’, should cease in all forms. 
(4) The statute establishing the Consumer Bu-
reau has been grossly misinterpreted under Mr. 
Mulvaney’s leadership, in a manner that is incon-
sistent with the agency’s statutory purpose, objectives, 
and functions. One example of this was Mr. 
Mulvaney’s inane suggestion that the statutory re-
quirement for the Director to appear before relevant 
Congressional Committees to discuss its semi-annual 
reports could be interpreted as requiring the Director 
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merely to attend a hearing and not answer questions, 
despite the well-established interpretation of a similar 
statutory requirement for the Chair of the Federal Re-
serve Board of Governors to appear before the House 
Financial Services Committee and the Senate Bank-
ing, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on a 
semi-annual basis about the monetary policy report, 
as required by the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employ-
ment Act. In the face of such blatant and disrespectful 
attempts to warp the authorizing and oversight role 
of the first branch of the Federal Government—the 
United States Congress—by the Trump Administra-
tion, Congress must, in this instance, now refine the 
Consumer Bureau’s authority to ensure that the vital 
role that the Consumer Bureau should be playing 
within the country’s financial regulatory regime is 
not effectively destroyed by the agency’s current lead-
ership. 
(5) The Consumer Bureau, now under a new Di-
rector, should promptly reverse all anti-consumer ac-
tions taken during Mr. Mulvaney’s tenure, including 
the actions identified by this legislation, to ensure 
that the agency is fully complying with its statutory 
purpose, objectives, and functions to protect all con-
sumers, including communities of color and vulner-
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able populations. One important action is for the 
Consumer Bureau to resume robust fair lending en-
forcement to ensure that every consumer has fair and 
equal access to affordable financial products and serv-
ices. Another demonstration of this would be for the 
Consumer Bureau to immediately resume supervision 
of its regulated entities for compliance with the Mili-
tary Lending Act to ensure for the most robust and 
efficient protection of active-duty servicemembers and 
their families. Other examples include the Consumer 
Bureau significantly revising its strategic plan to 
align it with its statutory purpose, objectives and 
functions, and for the agency to immediately resume 
coordinating closely with other Federal agencies, such 
as the Department of Education and the Department 
of Defense, and State regulators, as is required by sec-
tion 1015 of Dodd-Frank to, ‘‘promote consistent reg-
ulatory treatment of consumer financial and invest-
ment products and services.’’ 
(6) While the legislation is a direct response to 
address many of the misguided decisions that have 
been orchestrated under Mr. Mulvaney’s leadership at 
the Consumer Bureau that have been exposed to the 
public, as of the date of the bill’s introduction, and 
sharply criticized by numerous Federal and State of-
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ficials, including law enforcement, as well as organi-
zations representing servicemembers, senior citizens, 
and other vulnerable consumer populations, this legis-
lation should not be viewed as an exhaustive list to 
fix all the damaging actions that may have occurred 
at this agency since the departure of former Director 
Cordray in November 2017, particularly since de-
tailed information revealing the full scope, nature, 
and extent of the current flawed operation of the 
agency, and the adverse impact resulting from these 
actions, may not yet be publicly available. Rather, 
this legislation should be interpreted as an attempt to 
highlight and resolve a small sample of the publicly 
known egregious statements, decisions, and actions 
that have occurred since November 2017. 
SEC. 3. CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1011(a) of the Consumer 
Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5491(a)) is 
amended by striking ‘‘Bureau of Consumer Financial Pro-
tection’’ and inserting ‘‘Consumer Financial Protection Bu-
reau’’. 
(b) DEEMING OF NAME.—Any reference in any law, 
regulation, document, record, or other paper of the United 
States to the ‘‘Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’’ 
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shall be deemed a reference to the ‘‘Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau’’. 
(c) NAME USE REQUIREMENT.—Section 1011 of the 
Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 
5491) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(f) NAME USE REQUIREMENT.—The Consumer Fi-
nancial Protection Bureau shall refer to itself in any public 
communication, including on any website, as the ‘Con-
sumer Financial Protection Bureau’ or the ‘CFPB’.’’. 
SEC. 4. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Acts and provisions described 
under subsection (b) are amended by striking ‘‘Bureau of 
Consumer Financial Protection’’ each place such term ap-
pears (including in headings and items in table of contents) 
and inserting ‘‘Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’’. 
(b) ACTS TO CONFORM.—The Acts and provisions de-
scribed in this subsection are as follows: 
(1) The Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity 
Act of 1982 (12 U.S.C. 3801 et seq.). 
(2) The Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 
U.S.C. 1601 et seq.). 
(3) The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 
Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.). 
(4) The Expedited Funds Availability Act (12 
U.S.C. 4001 et seq.). 
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(5) The Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 
U.S.C. 1811 et seq.). 
(6) The Federal Financial Institutions Exam-
ination Council Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3201 et seq.). 
(7) The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, 
and Enforcement Act of 1989 (12 U.S.C. 1811 note 
et seq.). 
(8) The Financial Literacy and Education Im-
provement Act (20 U.S.C. 9701 et seq.). 
(9) Section 626 of the Financial Services and 
General Government Appropriations Act, 2009 (Divi-
sion D of Public Law 111–8; 12 U.S.C. 5538). 
(10) The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (12 U.S.C. 
1811 note et seq.). 
(11) The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 
(12 U.S.C. 2801 et seq.). 
(12) Section 10(a)(4) of the Homeowners Protec-
tion Act of 1998 (12 U.S.C. 4901 et seq.). 
(13) The Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. 
App 2). 
(14) The Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure 
Act (15 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.). 
(15) The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act 
of 1974 (12 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.). 
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(16) Title LXII of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States (12 U.S.C. 21 et seq.). 
(17) The Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 
(12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.). 
(18) The S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 
2008 (12 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.). 
(19) The Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud 
and Abuse Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 6101 et seq.). 
(20) Sections 552a(w) and 3132(a)(1)(D) of title 
5, United States Code. 
(21) Section 987(g)(3)(E) of title 10, United 
States Code. 
(22) Sections 3502(5) and 3513(c) of title 44, 
United States Code. 
SEC. 5. EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATION POWERS. 
(a) OFFICE RESPONSIBILITIES.—Section 1012 of the 
Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 
5492) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection 
(d); and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(c) OFFICE
RESPONSIBILITIES.—Notwithstanding 
subsections (a) and (b), section 1013(a), and any other pro-
vision of law, with respect to the specific functional units 
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and offices described under subsections (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), 
and (h) of section 1013 and the advisory boards described 
under section 1014, the Director— 
‘‘(1) shall ensure that such functional units, of-
fices, and boards perform the functions, duties, and 
coordination assigned to them under the applicable 
provision of section 1013 or 1014; and 
‘‘(2) may not reorganize or rename such units, 
offices, and boards in a manner not provided for 
under the applicable provision of section 1013 or 
1014.’’. 
(b) DUTY TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE STAFFING.—Sec-
tion 1013(a)(1) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act 
of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5493(a)(1)) is amended by adding at 
the end the following: 
‘‘(D) DUTY TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE STAFF-
ING.—The Director shall ensure that the specific 
functional units and offices described under sub-
sections (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), and (h) of section 
1013, as well as other units and offices with su-
pervisory and enforcement duties, are provided 
with sufficient staff to carry out the functions, 
duties, and coordination of those units and of-
fices.’’. 
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(c) LIMITATION ON POLITICAL APPOINTEES.—Section 
1013(a)(1) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 
2010 (12 U.S.C. 5493(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following: 
‘‘(E) 
LIMITATION
ON
POLITICAL
AP-
POINTEES.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In appointing em-
ployees of the Bureau who are political ap-
pointees, the Director shall ensure that the 
number and duties of such political ap-
pointees are as similar as possible to those 
of the other Federal primary financial regu-
latory agencies. 
‘‘(ii) 
POLITICAL
APPOINTEES
DE-
FINED.—For purposes of this subparagraph, 
the term ‘political appointee’ means an em-
ployee who holds— 
‘‘(I) a position which has been ex-
cepted from the competitive service by 
reason of its confidential, policy-deter-
mining, policy-making, or policy-advo-
cating character; 
‘‘(II) a position in the Senior Ex-
ecutive Service as a noncareer ap-
pointee (as such term is defined in sec-
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tion 3132(a) of title 5, United States 
Code); or 
‘‘(III) a position under the Execu-
tive Schedule (subchapter II of chapter 
53 of title 5, United States Code).’’. 
(d) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF COMPLAINT INFORMA-
TION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1013(b)(3) of the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 
5493(b)(3)) is amended— 
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 
(i) by inserting ‘‘publicly available’’ 
before ‘‘website’’; 
(ii) by inserting ‘‘publicly available’’ 
before ‘‘database’’, each place such term ap-
pears; and 
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: ‘‘The Director shall ensure that the 
landing page of the main website of the Bu-
reau contains a clear and conspicuous 
hyperlink to the consumer complaint data-
base described in this subparagraph and 
shall ensure that such database is user- 
friendly and in plain writing (as such term 
is defined in the Plain Writing Act of 
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2010). The Director shall ensure that all in-
formation on the website or the database 
that explains how to file a complaint with 
the Bureau, as well as all reports of the Bu-
reau with respect to information contained 
in the database, shall be provided in each of 
the 5 most commonly spoken languages, 
other than English, in the United States, as 
determined by the Bureau of the Census on 
an ongoing basis, and in formats accessible 
to individuals with hearing or vision im-
pairments.’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(E) PUBLIC
AVAILABILITY
OF
INFORMA-
TION.— 
‘‘(i) 
IN
GENERAL.—The 
Director 
shall— 
‘‘(I) make all consumer com-
plaints available to the public on a 
website of the Bureau; 
‘‘(II) place a clear and con-
spicuous hyperlink on the landing page 
of the main website of the Bureau to 
the website described under subclause 
(I); and 
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‘‘(III) ensure that such website— 
‘‘(aa) is searchable and sort-
able by both consumer financial 
product or service and by covered 
person; and 
‘‘(bb) is user-friendly and 
written in plain language. 
‘‘(ii) INCLUSION OF COMPLAINTS SUB-
MITTED WITH INQUIRIES.—For purposes of 
clause (i), in addition to all complaints de-
scribed under subparagraph (A), consumer 
complaints shall include any complaints 
submitted with, or as part of, an inquiry 
described under section 1034. 
‘‘(iii) REMOVAL OF PERSONALLY IDEN-
TIFIABLE INFORMATION.—In making the in-
formation described under clause (i) avail-
able to the public, the Director shall remove 
all personally identifiable information.’’. 
(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Bureau shall en-
sure— 
(i) that the database and website de-
scribed under section 1013(b)(3) of the Con-
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sumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 
have, at a minimum, the same availability, 
transparency, and functionality that such 
database and website had prior to November 
24, 2017; and 
(ii) that consumers are able, at a min-
imum, to submit complaints to the Bureau 
with respect to— 
(I) any covered person or service 
provider; and 
(II) any financial product or 
service. 
(B) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 
paragraph, the terms ‘‘covered person’’, ‘‘finan-
cial product or service’’, and ‘‘service provider’’ 
have the meaning given those terms, respectively, 
under section 1002 of the Consumer Financial 
Protection Act of 2010. 
(e) MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.— 
(1) REPORT ON CURRENT MOUS.—Not later than 
the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Director of the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau shall issue a report to 
the Committee on Financial Services of the House of 
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Representatives and the Committee on Banking, 
Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate listing— 
(A) each memorandum of understanding in 
effect with the Bureau on November 24, 2017; 
(B) any changes made to such a memo-
randum of understanding since such date, in-
cluding any memorandum of understanding re-
scinded since such date; and 
(C) a justification for each such change or 
rescission. 
(2) SEMI-ANNUAL
REPORT
ON
MOUS.—Section 
1016(c) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 
2010 (12 U.S.C. 5496(c)) is amended— 
(A) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(B) in paragraph (9), by striking the period 
and inserting a semicolon; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(10) a list of each memorandum of under-
standing in effect with the Bureau, any changes made 
to a memorandum of understanding since the last re-
port was made under subsection (b), and a justifica-
tion for each such change;’’. 
(f) ADDITIONAL REPORT INFORMATION ON CONSUMER 
SAVINGS.—Section 1013 of the Consumer Financial Protec-
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pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS
tion Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5493) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
‘‘(i) ADDITIONAL REPORT INFORMATION
ON CON-
SUMER SAVINGS.—In issuing each report required under 
section 502(d) of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, the Bureau 
shall include a numerical estimate of the amount that such 
Act has saved consumers in fees impacted by such Act, rel-
ative to the level of such fees prior to the enactment of such 
Act.’’. 
SEC. 6. OFFICES OF THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTEC-
TION BUREAU. 
(a) CLARIFICATION OF THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE 
OF FAIR LENDING AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.—Section 
1013(c)(2) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 
2010 (12 U.S.C. 5493(c)(2)) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘Office of Fair Lending and 
Equal Opportunity shall have such powers and duties 
as the Director may delegate to the Office, including’’ 
and inserting ‘‘powers and duties of the Office of Fair 
Lending and Equal Opportunity shall include’’; 
(2) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(3) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period 
and inserting a semicolon; and 
(4) by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(E) implementing the Bureau’s enforce-
ment and supervisory authority with respect to 
fair lending laws; and 
‘‘(F) such additional powers and duties as 
the Director may determine appropriate.’’. 
(b) OFFICE OF STUDENTS AND YOUNG CONSUMERS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1013 of the Consumer 
Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5493), as 
amended by section 5(f), is further amended by add-
ing at the end the following: 
‘‘(j) OFFICE OF STUDENTS AND YOUNG CONSUMERS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall, not later 
than the end of the 60-day period beginning on the 
date of enactment of this section, establish an Office 
of Students and Young Consumers, which shall work 
to empower students, young people, and their families 
to make more informed financial decisions about sav-
ing and paying for college, accessing safer and more 
affordable financial products and services, all matters 
related to private education loans (as defined under 
section 1035(e)), and repaying student loan debt, in-
cluding private education loans. 
‘‘(2) HEAD OF THE OFFICE.—The head of the Of-
fice of Students and Young Consumers shall be the 
Assistant Director and Student Loan Ombudsman, 
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and the Assistant Director and Student Loan Om-
budsman shall carry out all functions established 
under section 1035 through the Office of Students and 
Young Consumers. 
‘‘(3) SUPERVISORY, ENFORCEMENT, AND REGU-
LATORY MATTERS.—The Office of Students and Young 
Consumers shall assist in all supervisory, enforce-
ment, and regulatory matters of the Bureau related to 
the functions of the Office. 
‘‘(4) COORDINATION.—The Director shall enter 
into memoranda of understanding and similar agree-
ments with the Department of Education and other 
Federal and State agencies, as appropriate, in order 
to carry out the business of the Office of Students and 
Young Consumers.’’. 
(2) RENAMING
AND
APPOINTMENT
CLARIFICA-
TION
OF
THE
PRIVATE
EDUCATION
LOAN
OMBUDS-
MAN.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Section 1035 of the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 
U.S.C. 5535) is amended— 
(i) in the heading of the section by 
striking ‘‘PRIVATE EDUCATION’’ and in-
serting ‘‘ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR
AND 
STUDENT’’; 
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(ii) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘The 
Secretary, in consultation with the Director, 
shall designate a Private Education Loan 
Ombudsman’’ and inserting ‘‘The Director 
shall designate an individual as the Assist-
ant Director and Student Loan Ombuds-
man’’; 
(iii) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘The 
Secretary and the Director’’ and inserting 
‘‘The Director’’; and 
(iv) in subsection (d)(2), by inserting 
‘‘the Director,’’ before ‘‘the Secretary,’’. 
(B) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of 
contents under section 1(b) of the Dodd-Frank 
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection 
Act is amended, in the item relating to section 
1035, by striking ‘‘Private education’’ and in-
serting ‘‘Assistant director and student’’. 
(C) DEEMING OF NAME.—Any reference in 
any law, regulation, document, record, or other 
paper of the United States to the ‘‘Private Edu-
cation Loan Ombudsman’’ shall be deemed a ref-
erence to the ‘‘Assistant Director and Student 
Loan Ombudsman’’. 
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(c) SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CERTAIN 
OFFICES OF THE BUREAU.—Section 1016(c) of the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 
5496(c)), as amended by section 5(e)(2), is further amended 
by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(11) with respect to each of the specific func-
tional units and offices established under section 
1013— 
‘‘(A) a detailed description of the activities 
of the unit or office since the last report was 
made under subsection (b); and 
‘‘(B) an analysis of the efforts of the Bureau 
to achieve the duties of the unit or office; and 
‘‘(12) with respect to each specific functional 
units and offices established under section 1013, as 
well as each other unit and office with supervisory 
and enforcement duties, a break down of the number 
of political and professional career staff assigned to 
and employed by each unit or office at the end of the 
reporting period.’’. 
(d) FUNCTION OF ANY UNIT OR OFFICE ESTABLISHED 
TO CONDUCT COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS.—Any unit or office 
established to conduct cost benefit analysis within the Con-
sumer Financial Protection Bureau shall, as its sole func-
tion, carry out the considerations required by section 
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