Hagerty, Banking Republicans Slam CFPB Nominee Chopra Ahead of Senate Confirmation Vote

July 14, 2021

WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee joined, Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) and all Republican members of the committee in sending a letter slamming Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), for his refusal to respond to a congressional request seeking information about an alleged purge of civil servants at the CFPB.

“Your refusal to answer basic questions about whether you were privy to the troubling and possibly unlawful actions described in the press is unacceptable from a federal nominee and in our view should disqualify you from consideration as CFPB Director,” the members wrote.

“Any individual nominated to lead a federal agency should be expected to provide truthful and clear answers to fair and basic questions from Congress,” the members continued. “Any nominee who refuses to do so during their nomination has not earned the right to be confirmed. Indeed, if you are refusing even to respond to congressional inquiries while your nomination is pending before the Senate, there is little doubt about how you will treat such inquiries if confirmed,” the members concluded.

The full letter can be found here and below:

Dear Commissioner Chopra:

We are concerned with your refusal to respond to a congressional request seeking information about potential violations of law at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). As you know, you received a Senate Banking Committee letter1 on June 17th seeking basic answers about your knowledge of allegations detailed in recent press reports over the improper treatment of employees at the CFPB. According to the allegations in the press reports, political leadership at the CFPB under the Biden administration has taken questionable and possibly unlawful actions to push out top-level CFPB career civil servants in order to fill those civil service positions with hand-picked loyalists. Such actions reportedly include offering employees extraordinary separation incentives to leave their posts and placing employees on administrative leave after opening up frivolous investigations against them. These allegations, if true, may violate employment and other laws.

Notwithstanding the gravity of these allegations and the fact that the you were asked to provide answers to straightforward questions by no later than June 21st, to date you have provided no response to the letter and have also ignored every inquiry into whether you intend to respond.

Your refusal to answer basic questions about whether you were privy to the troubling and possibly unlawful actions described in the press is unacceptable from a federal nominee and in our view should disqualify you from consideration as CFPB Director. As you know, the questions in the letter of June 17th focused on whether you were or were not aware of the allegations described in the press reports. These were primarily “yes” or “no” questions. In this context, your refusal to simply deny such knowledge creates the appearance that you are attempting to conceal what you knew about this matter.

Any individual nominated to lead a federal agency should be expected to provide truthful and clear answers to fair and basic questions from Congress. Any nominee who refuses to do so during their nomination has not earned the right to be confirmed. Indeed, if you are refusing even to respond to congressional inquiries while your nomination is pending before the Senate, there is little doubt about how you will treat such inquiries if confirmed. While providing these answers is not a sufficient basis for earning confirmation to a senior position in the federal government, we view it as a necessary prerequisite.

Accordingly, we call on you to promptly and completely answer the questions contained in the Senate Banking Committee letter of June 17th . Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,