WASHINGTON – Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) released the following statement on today’s federal court ruling that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unconstitutional:

“This is a good day for democracy, economic freedom, due process and the Constitution.  The second highest court in the land has vindicated what House Republicans have said all along, that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional.

“By design the CFPB is arguably the most powerful and least accountable Washington bureaucracy in American history, and it shows.  The Bureau has infringed on the economic freedoms of consumers, limited their financial choices, increased their costs, and failed to hold managers accountable for widespread discrimination and abuse of its own employees.  This must change.  The CFPB has an important mission. Properly designed and led, it is capable of great good. But the Bureau’s bizarre and defective structure allows it to evade the time-tested checks and balances that are necessary to hold it or any other government bureaucracy accountable.  Our Constitution requires these checks and balances to protect our God-given liberties from government abuse.  It is astonishing that the Democrats who voted for the Dodd-Frank Act so casually disregarded their constitutional obligations to the American people.  It’s also astonishing that President Obama illegally bypassed the Senate by appointing Richard Cordray to serve as the Bureau’s Director. It is time to restore the rule of law and Constitutional governance to this nation. While I welcome today’s decision, it’s absurd that a judicial opinion was necessary.

“The Financial CHOICE Act, approved by our committee last month, solves the constitutional defect identified by the court today.  The Financial CHOICE Act replaces the current unaccountable single director with a bipartisan, five-member commission – which is how virtually every independent regulatory agency, including those responsible for consumer and investor protection, currently operates.

“Republican efforts in the Financial CHOICE Act to reform the Bureau are and have always been grounded in the fundamental belief that all government bureaucracies should be accountable to hardworking taxpayers, especially those bureaucracies like the CFPB that can spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year with no oversight or control from Congress or the executive branch; employ an army federal employees; and have a direct impact on the personal finances of virtually every American citizen.”