To amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act with respect to information provided to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Mr. Speaker, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a massive new branch of government created under the Dodd-Frank Act, fails to safeguard proprietary information given to the Bureau by regulated entities. I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4014, which will create more peace of mind for financial institutions while offering more oversight and consumer protections to hardworking taxpayers.

If you remember one thing, remember this: we all agree on stringent consumer protections. This bill is a commonsense measure that adds necessary oversight to the Bureau. Specifically, H.R. 4014 would immediately close a loophole in the law that was created during the creation of the CFPB. Currently, information collected by the CFPB from financial institutions is not protected by the same confidentiality provisions that other financial regulators are required to provide. Additionally, we must ensure parity between State bank supervisors and other State regulatory agencies that oversee nonbanks at the State level and make sure they are afforded the same protections. We need a real solution to ensure that privileged information will not be intentionally disclosed to any third party. H.R. 4014 would protect that data that depository and non-depository institutions provide during an oversight exam, therefore, enhancing the Bureau's supervision process and giving financial institutions the much-needed certainty that the information will be kept private.

Unlike current statutes regarding other Federal agencies assessing relevant information, the Dodd-Frank Act failed to provide such protections despite the CFPB's claim that they won't or wouldn't share such information.

The simple truth is that if we don't pass H.R. 4014, the CFPB could legally share privileged information with third parties. Absent this specific congressional legislation, the courts have permitted this practice of sharing in the cases of other Federal agencies. Although the Bureau has said that they are prepared to take all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect proprietary information, we cannot be sure. Therefore, we must pass this bill to restrict them from doing so.

Even President Barack Obama's appointed director of the CFPB, Richard Cordray, recently testified that this was an ``oversight'' and that he would be ``supportive'' of a legislative solution to ensure privileged information is not leaked to third parties through the CFPB. My bill is that real legislative solution. This is a commonsense fix that will put an end to the needless uncertainty and legal costs to both the CFPB and to financial institutions.

Mr. Speaker, while I believe this issue must and will eventually be addressed in the Dodd-Frank Act, this is a very important step. I urge the swift adoption of this important legislation to restore genuine accountability to the CFPB and to deliver a more efficient and effective government for America's hardworking taxpayers.

I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to see that this omission in the Dodd-Frank Act is quickly rectified and sent to the President for his signature.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4014) to amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act with respect to information provided to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 4014, a bill to ensure that confidential, private information collected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, remains confidential.

Introduced by my colleague from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), this legislation addresses a crucial oversight within the Dodd-Frank Act. Under current law, many supervised institutions have expressed concern that supplying privileged information to the CFPB at the government's request could void attorney-client and work product privileges against third parties. Even the new CFPB director, Richard Cordray, as was talked about, has acknowledged constitutional concerns and indicated that he would be supportive of a legislative solution. H.R. 4014 is that solution.

Mr. Huizenga's bill makes it explicitly clear that providing privileged material to the CFPB does not waive attorney-client or work product privileges with respect to third parties. It also guarantees that any privileged matter that the CFPB shares with other Federal agencies will remain privileged.

This bill has earned nearly universal support from Republicans, Democrats, regulated institutions, the regulator, Senators, and Members of the House. On February 16, our House Financial Services Committee passed this bill by voice vote.

Mr. Speaker, this bill should be on the President's desk in a matter of weeks and not months. Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Shelby of the Senate Banking Committee have introduced an identical measure, S. 2099, which also awaits consideration. Passing this legislation today marks an important milestone. It is the first time that both House and Senate Members on both sides of the aisle are acknowledging and correcting a serious flaw in the Dodd-Frank Act.

With that, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4014, and I commend Mr. Huizenga for his hard work on this issue. I have no further requests for time, if the gentleman would like to close.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I would, again, commend the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Huizenga. And I thank Mr. Green for managing this bill.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4014 to clarify that privileged information that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau receives remains privileged throughout the supervision process.

I would like to commend my colleague from Michigan, Mr. Huizenga for bringing this bill forward. This issue has come up now in several congressional hearings, in the Oversight Committee, in the Senate Banking Committee and also in the Financial Institutions Subcommittee on which I sit.

Many institutions have expressed concern that there is no statutory protection of the attorney-client privilege for sensitive material that they turn over to the CFPB during the supervision process.

Director Cordray has testified that he would support a statutory extension of the attorney-client privilege to documents that the CFPB receives. This is standard for all of the banking regulators and it should be true for the CFPB as well.

It is critical that the process be an open exchange between the bureau and the entities it regulates. And that can only happen if the entities can trust that they aren't inadvertently waiving the privilege simply by turning documents over.

I would note that the CFPB office of the General Counsel has indicated in a recent memo that it would ensure that the privilege was not waived, but I know that the entities involved in the CFPB's regulator process would prefer that to be codified, and I would agree.

As it is currently drafted, the bill is identical to a bill introduced on a bipartisan basis in the other body. Both bills ensure that privilege is not waived when the CFPB receives sensitive information and when it shares that information with other agencies.

I support this bill and urge my colleagues to support it as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 4014 is a good piece of legislation, and it is designed to protect proprietary information, which is exceedingly important in the business world. This bill ensures that when an institution submits confidential information to the CFPB, the information will remain confidential. This bill is in line with existing law for other financial regulators.

We have confirmed that the CFPB believes this fix to be acceptable. The bill is identical to legislation introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Shelby. This legislation will give financial institutions legal certainty when turning over data to the CFPB.

Mr. Speaker, current law states that a bank does not waive confidentiality and, thereby, should not have to risk its disclosure of information to other parties. These parties are sometimes engaged in litigation against each other. This piece of legislation will assure a party that its information given to the CFPB will not end up in the hands of another party that may be engaged in litigation. This is but one example. This bill is designed to protect proprietary information.

I want to thank my colleague for the outstanding job that he has done in presenting this piece of legislation. I thank Mrs. Biggert for, again, showing the bipartisanship that has helped us to bring this legislation to the floor.

At this time, I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I will simply encourage my colleagues to support the legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank Senators Udall and Harkin.

The Senator has raised an important point about this legislation. The intent of this legislation is not to lessen the amount of information that a consumer receives prior to conducting a transaction at an ATM. As the Senator has laid out, it is important that consumers be fully informed of the types of fees that they may face at the time of the transaction. The point was to modernize the information that consumers get, taking into account technological changes. But this bill is only one step toward modernization. The CFPB may wish to look at other steps to ensure that consumers are fully informed about the fees they may incur, whether that be through improved onscreen ATM disclosures, better disclosures at point of sale, or other methods.

I understand that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already taking a look at this issue as part of an existing rulemaking to streamline inherited regulations, and I agree that it is important for them to keep this fact in mind as they move forward on this rulemaking.

Mr. MERKLEY: I thank Chairman Johnson.

Yes, I would like to reiterate that the intent of this bill is to streamline duplicative disclosures and not make consumers less aware of potential fees that they face. Like you, I encourage the Bureau to use their upcoming rulemaking to ensure that this is not the case. I now turn to my friend from Minnesota.