mr. hensarling: mr. chairman, i yield myself five seconds to encourage the gentleman from washington to read section 1017 of the dodd-frank fact and would discover that the cfpb is funded by the federal reserve which happens to be taxpayer money. at this time, mr. chairman, i'm happy to yield one minute to the gentleman from missouri, mr. luetkemeyer, the vice chairman of our housing subcommittee. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. luetkemeyer: thank you, mr. chairman. my colleagues have done a good job listing problems of the cfpb. i want to tell you about the overreach of this already. one business purchased a small lending company and it comes with a lease for the building you're operating out of. the rent is $300 over what the rate should be for that area. they go in and tell the bank they'll fine them $107,000 for this lease which doesn't -- nothing the bank made. it doesn't impact consumers, yet they're fined $107,000. the bank eventually settles $80,000 plus $30,000 in at

mr. hensarling: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: i'd ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection? o ordered. the gentlelady from new hampshire is recognized for five minutes. ms. shea-porter: thank you. this is the final amendment to the bill and will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. if adopted, the bill will immediately procede to final passage as amended. mr. speaker, just a few years after a financial meltdown that crashed our economy and punished middle class families, some politicians here want to go back to the days when wall street wrote its own rules and consumers got the short end of the stick. we all know how that worked out. it brought a tremendous financial crisis. the consumer financial protection bureau emerged out of the ashes of that financial disaster. >> mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady will suspend. once again, would members of he people's house take their conversations from the floor so tha

mr. hensarling: mr. chairman, i recognize myself for as much time as i may consume. the chair: without objection. mr. hensarling: mr. chairman, we are now into the sixth year of the obama administration and probably the two most common comments i hear from my constituents, i just can't make ends meet in this economy. and washington has become arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch. and at the apex of these sentiments lies the newly minted dodd-frank government agency known as the cfpb. although many have yet to hear of it, the cfpb is perhaps the single most powerful and least accountable federal agency in all of washington. first, let's speak of its power. mr. chairman, when it comes to our credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, the cfpb has unbridled correctionary -- discretionary power, not only to make them less available and more expensive, but to absolutely take them away. what does an agency with this kind of power do? it imposes rules like the qualified mortgage rule, or q.m. for short. mr. chai

mr. hensarling, as well as the ranking member in the committee on getting an answer. and as i've stated to people numerous times, i do appreciate not only them keeping this issue in the forefront, but it is something we must address in the rules committee. we intend to do that. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. it's my honor to yield three minutes to the gentleman from maryland, the democratic whip, mr. hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for three minutes. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman from colorado for yielding. i thank my colleagues from florida for being on the floor. and i rise to urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that instead we can call up a bipartisan bill to alleviate the anxiety of millions of homeowners, flood-prone areas and their flood insurance premiums won't become simply unaffordable. should we do any less, twice already we've had the votes in this house to bring up this bill. a com

mr. chairman. >> dr. calabria, you are now recognized. >> chairman hensarling, members of the committee, i want to thank you for the invitation to appear at today supportinsupportin g. before you begin let me first commend the chairman of the establishment of the federal reserve's continued oversight project. certainly the opinion every government program should be reviewed regularly the subject of vigorous oversight, the american people deserve nothing less. quite frankly i can think of no part of the federal government more deserving of oversight right now than the federal reserve. had vigorous oversight of the federal reserve been done in the past we may very well have been able to avoid the creation of a massive housing bubble. i will not repeat chairman does assessment of the economy as i agree with much of it, but will highlight a few issues, touch upon the monetary policy and wrap up with a few comments on regulatory policy. the release last week of january's associate survey revealed continued weakness in the job market. the one of 13,000 jobs number was cancer but below expectations. the consensus