CBA boosts congressional team to perfect Dodd-Frank

The Consumer Banker’s Association (CBA) beefed-up its congressional affairs team in preparation for the 114th Congress, which began today.  

The trade organization for the retail banking industry said it plans to spend this session finding ways to improve the Dodd-Frank Act. 

“No one is capable of writing a perfect 1,900 page bill,” CBA spokesman Tom Crosson said. 

Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) former legislative assistant Kristen Fallon and Rep. Donald Payne Jr.’s (D-N.J.) former legislative counsel and communications director Tiffany Haas have been hired as vice presidents on the congressional affairs team. 

Anna Bartlett Wright, who previously served as the House Financial Services Committee’s operation manager under Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), has been hired as the government relations coordinator. The congressional affairs team is now a staff of five with Congressional Affairs President Reagan Anderson and Policy Aide Bill Hulse. 

“The 114th Congress is a fresh opportunity for our nation’s legislators to reexamine the effects of the Dodd-Frank Act on consumer choice and independence,” Reagan said in a statement. “CBA will be focusing on perfecting the structure of the CFPB ensuring it is accountable to taxpayers and Dodd-Frank is working to keep our financial system strong,” added Anderson.”

Changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are also on the CBA’s agenda this year. The association said it wants to restructure the CFPB and create a commission to manage the agency. A sole director manages CFPB now. 

“This will make the CFPB less of a political football as it will include voices from both sides of the aisle, much like other government regulators,” Crosson said, who went onto explain that Dodd-Frank originally called for CFPB to be led by a commission.  

“This was voted for by both then-Speaker Pelosi and then-Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank. This structure was later changed to a sole director by the Senate.”