Writing in bankstocks.com, Thomas Brown says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) did not follow its own rules in seeking approval for its new headquarters, the tab for which has risen from the original $95 million to an estimated $215 million. The Federal Reserve’s inspector general’s report concludes no evidence was found of the decision to fully renovate the building, nor did the agency complete a required analysis of alternatives. Brown says the CFPB’s charter requires a review of major capital expenditures from the Investment Review Board (IRB). As Brown tells MHProNews, the head of the CFPB cannot be fired and the agency does not receive annual appropriations from Congress like other federal agencies do. It is an arrangement that allows the CFPB “to do whatever it wants, and no one—not Congress, not the White House, nobody–can stop it. Which is why (surprise!) the agency can decide it’s going to use government money to build itself a Taj Mahal, and that’s that.” ##
