Harry Hamburg
Who knew it would be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would bring the claws out in Congress? Tuesday’s House of Representatives hearing about the startup agency broke down into a heated argument, showing the still-open wounds Congressional Republicans carry regarding the new financial-oversight rules. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), chairman of the subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, accused Elizabeth Warren, the head of the newly formed agency, of misleading Congress in her March testimony about the settlement talks between federal and state authorities and mortgage companies. Warren accused McHenry of “causing problems,” while McHenry shot back that Warren was “making [the agreement] up.” Since the consumer-protection agency was created in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act, Republicans have tried to discredit the agency.