Straight Talk: Congressional ‘to do’ list

With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and gaining strength in the Senate, I hope the next congress will work to make these changes:. First, redefine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to focus solely on less-regulated financial players — that would be mortgage companies and brokers, payday lenders, check cashers, finance companies, debt consolidators and insurance companies. CFPB should not have any rule-making or enforcement authority over FDIC-insured institutions, which already comply with a cadre of consumer protection laws. CFPB also should have authority over auto-financing companies. (How did they ever get a carve-out in the first place?). Second, subject Farm Credit System lenders to CFPB. These lenders can offer mortgages but because CFPB does not apply to FCS institutions, these lenders may not be subject to RESPA or other standard consumer protection laws applying to mortgages in the Dodd-Frank era. This is not a good situation. Taxpayer-subsidized lenders should not be allowed to skirt the rules that apply to everyone else.. Third, come up with a better way to manage the secondary market for mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost their focus and are costing taxpayers a fortune as they operate under federal conservatorship. Fannie Mae just reported a third quarter loss of $3.46 billion. The housing GSEs should have been at the center of financial reform discussions during the last two years, but lawmakers put it off. Well, they can't put it off any longer.. Fourth, repeal the Durbin amendment. This is the rule that requires the Federal Reserve to set pricing for debit card transactions based on only a fraction of the factors that go into providing such service. The rule is guaranteed to hurt the banks that issue debit cards. There is no way of logically justifying federal price fixing in a business-to-business relationship. Furthermore, interchange fees had nothing to do with the financial crisis, so what is this amendment doing in the Dodd-Frank Act?. Fifth, remove the health care law provision that will require businesses to issue 1099s to corporations from which they buy more than $600 worth of good or services. This provision is supposed to start in 2011. It would be a nightmare for everyone.. And sixth, refuse to fund the hiring of 18,000 additional IRS agents needed to enforce new health insurance mandates. This would save about $1 billion but more importantly it would give congress breathing room to reconsider the law it passed last March. Clearly the system needs improvement, but it doesn't need the sweeping changes that will in effect federalize the U.S. health care system within a few years.