Consumer Law

Campaign Contributions and the Vote to Cut the CFPB's Budget

By Jeff Sovern

by Jeff Sovern

As we noted a couple of weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted to cut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's budget.  I was curious about the relationship of campaign contributions to the vote, so I asked my research assistant, Edmund Witter, to look into it. Using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Edmund concluded that the average representative who voted to reduce the Bureau's funding received $186,723 from the financial, insurance, and real estate industries; those who voted to preserve its funding received $159,138, for a difference of $27,585.  Reminds me of the old saw about how we have the best Congress money can buy.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).