House Committee Approves Bill Placing CFPB Under Congressional Appropriations Process
The House Financial Services Committee has approved a bill that would make significant changes to how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau operates.
According to law firm Ballard Spahr LLP, H.R. 10184, the Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026, passed by a 28-21 vote.
It will affect the CFPB’s structure, funding, rulemaking, supervision, enforcement, and other authorities, the firm said.
Most significantly, the firm noted that the bill, sponsored by Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), would place the CFPB under the congressional appropriations process.
Currently, the CFPB obtains its funding directly from the Federal Reserve, subject to statutory limits. The bill would instead require the CFPB to obtain its funding through annual congressional appropriations.
Additional Requirements
According to Ballard Spahr, H.R. 10184 also would impose additional requirements on CFPB rulemaking and retrospective review of its regulations; require rulemaking concerning the meaning of “abusive” under the Consumer Financial Protection Act; make changes to bank and nonbank supervision; clarify the legal status of CFPB guidance; revise civil penalty provisions; make changes to the Bureau’s market-monitoring authority; and revise aspects of its consumer complaint process.
An important development at the bill’s markup was the adoption of an amendment offered by Barr.
Designated BARR_154, the substitute replaced the introduced version of H.R. 10184 and was adopted by voice vote.
The substitute retains the basic structure and main provisions of the introduced bill but makes several substantive changes.
One of the more significant changes, the firm said, concerns the retrospective review of CFPB regulations.
Under the revised bill, if the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) determines that a major CFPB rule fails to demonstrate net benefits, the CFPB generally would have a year to undertake corrective rulemaking.
Ballard Spahr also said the substitute also provides that, during the period before the corrective rule becomes effective, the CFPB and other federal or state agencies could not enforce the portion of the rule that OMB determined “failed to demonstrate net benefits.”
Proposed Safe Harbor
The substitute also modifies the proposed safe harbor for certain small-dollar credit products, Ballard Spahr noted.
The Financial Services Committee has completed its consideration of the bill and ordered it reported favorably to the House. The bill was originally referred to the Financial Services, Judiciary, Small Business, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees.
The Financial Services Committee is the only one of those committees to have acted on H.R. 10184.
The bill is subject to referrals to the Judiciary, Small Business, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees.
