WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), Ranking Member on the Consumer Protection & Financial Institutions Subcommittee, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) and Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25) introduced a three-bill package to protect American small businesses and financial institutions from costly and invasive data collection and compliance standards. Congressman Luetkemeyer’s bill would require the Consumer Financial Protect Bureau (CFPB) to do a separate notice-and-comment rulemaking to determine what information will be published by the Bureau.

“Forcing financial institutions to collect the race and gender information of small business owners is extremely troubling and goes against decades of anti-discrimination laws. However, that is exactly what the CFPB is doing. Even worse, the Bureau refuses to tell us what information they will or will not make public, or even share how they plan to make that determination. Yet again, they are skirting the legal rulemaking process, this time threatening the privacy of small business owners across America,” said Luetkemeyer, Hill and Williams.

Full text of the Bank Loan Privacy Act can be found HERE. 

Background:
In addition to their bills, the Members also sent a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra today regarding the rulemaking section 1071 of Dodd-Frank:

“Since the CFPB issued the proposed rule, we have heard numerous concerns from industry stakeholders, including financial institutions of various sizes, and categories, and a wide range of small businesses regarding the specific makeup of the rule. In addition, the CFPB received more than 2,000 comment letters in response to the rulemaking highlighting specific issues regarding implementation, over burdensome requirements, privacy concerns, the rulemaking process, and small business access to credit. We urge you to take action to remedy these issues within the final rulemaking and would highlight the following issues of particular concern.”

The Independent Community of Bankers of America (ICBA) recently expressed their support of the legislation. Their full letter can be found here.