i fear the cfpb has just created a new silo. some of the financial regulators have not eliminated positions, and they were not transferred. rather than using this opportunity to insure no duplication among the agencies, we have just added another bureaucracy to the agency. i hope you will address the staffing needs going forward and work with the provincial regulators to eliminate these conflicting divisions and positions. it adds an unnecessary and added burden to particularly community banks as they are moving forward, trying to unlock and create jobs and get lending in small businesses selling again. i do have questions, like my colleague from texas, on the nature of the appointment of mr. cordray as the director. i believe it could lead to some legal challenges of the cfpb actions, and create more ambiguity. i hope this becomes more clarified. i thank you for appearing before the committee and look forward to your testimony. >> ranking member waters is recognized for one and a half to two minutes. a minute and a half? >> mr.

the cfpb is an independent federal agency whose authority, as many of us have said, is far reaching. some have said unprecedented. title x or title x of the dodd-frank act confers virtual unfettered discretion and the director to identify financial products and services deemed to be unfair, deceptive or abusive and to ban them under what's been described as a highly-subjective standard that has no legally-defined content. all of us agree on the need to protect consumers, all of us also agree that every government bureaucracy needs transparency and oversight. the simple truth -- if we can have a little order. the simple truth that there's no reason we cannot have both, robust consumer protection and an agency that is accountable for the action it takes and the resources it uses, the cause of greater accountability was not well served by the president's decision to circumvent the advice and the consent of the senate and install the cfpb's director in a constitutionally-questionable maneuver. as i've told you previously, mr. cordray, i believe you know the agency you head were well -- n

cfpb, terrific people there. a really good head of the agency. but they have not brought -- you know, their future is i think we all understand somewhat uncertain, at least in the next year or two, and you know, they haven't brought a case yet because they're a new agency. and i don't -- one more thing and i'll stop. i don't envy you. you have tough choices to make, right, and whatever the choices you make, congressman, we're going to work within those parameters, but what i do know, and what i think commissioner rosch agrees with me on is that we're a really good agency. so i respect his position that you know, we should just stay flat and if that's where you end up, that's what we're going to do and we're going to do the best we can. >> thank you. you know, i hear what you're saying. every department that comes before us says the same thing. we're so important, so important, so important, and you know, i know certainly there are very important tasks you take care of. but i left north georgia earlier today, three children, kissed them all this m

jurisdiction should have been transferred over to the cfpb? >> good lord no. >> i absolutely agree with commissioner rosch. we can come back to this in the next round. if we're not transferring jurisdiction, we ought to stay active in the field until they have proven they can do the job. i think it can over time. >> lupty kags of efforts a waste of taxpayer dollars. let me passing on my questioning. >> thank you, madame chair. first of all, i would like to congratulations you and your staff on putting forth a bujd request $12 million less than for 2012. and that's probably the last time anyone will hear me congratulate somebody on a cut. we all have to do more with less. can you describe the steps eftd is taking to increase efficiency and streamline your operations? >> well, we all understand we're living in aner ra of os terty. for example, one thing we're trying to do is use computers to do the document reviews that are sometimes done and still have been done up until recent years in part by manual labor. another is human capital. commission

the relationship between the cfpb and the institutions examined. indeed, this practice feeds the fear that the cfpb's main purpose or object during an exam is to obtain documents and information that later can be used to launch an enforcement action. are you concerned about this as far as the institutions' perception of the cfpb? >> it is something i've had discussions with a number of bank ceos about. i make it a point, i frequently am calling through the list of the different financial institutions that we're now working with to make sure that they know there's an open line of communication to me. some of them have raised the issue, and i've taken pains to explain that this is, we are trying to integrate our supervision and enforcement teams. we want the supervision teams to understand where enforcement works and why and how. and we want the enforcement team to understand how supervision and examinations work and how. and that that often may be a preferable way to address and resolve problems which is a new thing for a lot of enforcement attorney

but we share jurisdiction now with the cfpb. i do not understand why we don't have a reduction in our ftes as a result of sharing jurisdiction with the sister agency which has taken 21 of our ftes away from us as it now stands. now, the chairman also mentioned during his remarks that we had contributed fees and fines which exceeded our budget request. >> slightly less, but yes. consistent with. >> okay. the budget submission assumes, that's before this committee, it assumes total offsetting collections of $136.5 million from hsr filing fees and do not call fees, but i'm concerned that the agency will never be able to collect those fees. the fact of the matter is that the actual collection of fees over the years has varied widely, and the ftc has only met its estimate of hsr fees once during the last ten years. accordingly, i question the utility of providing an estimate of offsetting fees to this committee. >> if i could just respond. are you done? let me just make a couple of points. first of all, i have the greatest respect fo

but from my standpoint, it's folly in this limbo state that the cfpb is in, except we know that it's got a lot of our people doing nonbank work, and some of our best people. it's folly for us to try and duplicate their efforts today. and particularly in a time of austerity. it doesn't make any sense to me. >> i appreciate that. i mean, the whole thing's kind of frustrating and it's kind of like on other financial types of things, you've got the s.e.c. and cftc having to jointly do rule making which is hard enough among five commissioners let alone then when you have to do five commissioners within each agency, all of whom then have to agree which is why it's taking so long to get other types of dodd-frank regs done. i appreciate what you all say. let me talk to you about these, just because i'm trying to find where could we easily save money. so we've got seven regional offices. you want to add, you know, a couple people in an inexpensive place in miami. so is there an atlanta office? >> yes. >> okay. so could the atlanta office close and become the miami office? >> that would not be

you're right, and ultimately the jurisdiction and the ability to promulgate national standards of the cfpb, i'm hopeful, frankly weather the settlement that what we'll do is begin to generate a record about the implementation of this that's helpful and also further action at the federal level. i don't pretend to think this is going to do it, and i don't think -- these aren't the final solutions. but i think they're a part of the solution. i think it's a first step forward and that's what we're going to try to do. i think there's an issue, by the way, about 37 pages, 300 requirements. some of them, you know, why they have to be requirements is a little crazy, like you got to own the note. that's a requirement. that's a standard. >> right. >> but it is a concern to me slightly that if we have a very complex and expensive system of servicing regulation -- and we may need it. it may be required in order to make sure people are fairly treated -- that does impact, influence, the shape of the industry itself, how many firms can actually afford to do it, how many firms -- who can actually afford,

originally by my colleagues and myself and we were democrats and republicans and worked with hud and cfpb after the safe act was enacted to do that. there are examples of people working together across party lines in the united states. as an old states rightser, it's nice to see the states have taken the lead in this. >> what joe smith is saying hey, we've got republican -- 25 democrats and 24 republican ags who came together and came to an agreement on the settlement. why is it so difficult for us to have at the federal level this positive discourse to try to come up with solutions to address it? >> well, let's keep in mind that -- and certainly this was all before joe. you didn't get to the settlement very quickly so there was quite a process to it. and we certainly have seen a handful of things one can debate what the ultimate impact of the jobs act will be. but that passed by partisan with support by the president. one, obviously, we're in an election year. that's going to make high level issues very difficult to reach agreement on and there's substantial disagreements over a diagnosi

you are referring to the launch of our cfpb app tool on our website. developed a large number of questions and answers that we knew were likely to be encountered in grappling with these situations. we realized we ought to make publicly available so that people can benefit by it across the country. i would echo what john said. what we want is not just to of the federal agency that protect consumers but a federal agency and many other organizations that enable consumers to protect themselves. it gives them the know-how, understanding, and appreciation of why things are important by checking their credit report. it then gives them the ability to do it. for us, is helping consumers muscle of and understand how to be informed about financial literacy about these large decisions they make that affect their futures like mortgages and retirement. we want to bring the decisions down to be more accessible where the choices are simpler and expressed in straightforward language so people can understand how to compare and choose. for a lot of consumers, there is a

so today, you're not the direct of cfpb. today, you are an honored guest of operation hope because you came to skimming am also going to give you the greatest of were possible. i will make you an honorary black man. come on. [applause] >> i'll do my best. john, i've very much want to thank you for hosting this here today. they talk all of the world about what it's like to be in paris in springtime and now we can tell the -- that's just as attracti attractive. we saw in the community today. i also want to thank everybody at operation hope, and to say that john, maybe appreciates the fact they don't have ranges. you are there branch. that's a good collaboration. and i also want to say that i would echo john's remarks. you may not know, john other to the fact that he spent i believe over six months or more homeless before the age of 18. because of the adversity his family suffered. we are not here to in part any blame around those kind of issues. we're here because we have work to do. we have problems to fix and we have progres

today you are not the director of cfpb.ame to this community i will give you the greatest award possible. i will make you an honorary black man. [laughter] [applause] >> i will do my best. i wanted very much thank you for hosting us here today. they talk about what it is like to be here in the spring time and now we can tell you anacostia's just as attractive in the springtime. i want to thank everybody at operation hold and to say that maybe etrade appreciates the fact that they don't have branches, you are the branch. that is a good collaboration. i also want to say, i would echo the remarks. john alluded to the backpack it -- u.s. -- alluded to the fact that he was six months or more homeless before the age of 18. we are not here to impart any blame on those kind of issues. we are here because we have work to do to we have problems to fix and progress to make. i thank you all so much for coming today. it is not news for me to tell you that american homeowners are struggling. you know it yourself. at the start of this yea

so, for example, in the private loan market, student loan market, we'd like to see -- and the cfpb is working on this, consumer financial protection bureau is working on this -- to see, we'd like to see better disclosure, and better protections, so that americans who are trying to, you know, pay for their education, borrow to do that, are not more vulnerable to making bad decisions in that context. there's a huge opportunity for sensible reforms like that, and improved disclosure, across the broader individual credit markets. and so we'll be working towards those things. nice to see you all. thanks for coming. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. [applause] >> two things -- one is that this is such a complicated conflict that we have never fought a war like this before. the second thing is that, what is referred to back here in washington as nation-building, really is targeted were fighting. >> david has spent decades covering military operations for the various news organizations. this week, he received a prize. he is one of the many pulitzer prize winners named this week that you

for example, in the private student loan market, we'd like to see, and the cfpb is working on this, we like to see better disclosure and better protection so that americans that are trying to pay for their education can borrow to do that and are not more vulnerable to making bad decisions in that context. it's a huge opportunity for sensible reforms like that with improved disclosure across the broader individual kind of markets. we'll be working towards those things. nice to see you all. thanks for coming. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. [applause] [inaudible] >> this comes sunday is the 100th anniversary of the u.s. chamber of commerce. on "news makers" sunday we talk with the president and ceo tom donahue about the economy, taxes, trade, and the business legislative agenda. that's sunday 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. eastern. on our facebook page today we're asking are you optimistic about u.s. manufacturing? join the conversation on facebook.com/ cspan. >> when i was in afghanistan, the soldiers started telling me that the u.s. government was tasting tens of billions of dollars on tota