{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/emmer-republican-leaders-demand-answers-on-cfpb-s-shady-policy-fellowship-program", "Emmer, Republican Leaders Demand Answers on CFPB\u2019s Shady Policy Fellowship Program", "2022-05-13", "2022", "2022-05", "Republican", "House", "MN", "Tom Emmer", "E000294", "emmer.house.gov", "emmer", "https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, DC\u2014 Today, Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (NC-10) sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra. Emmer and McHenry were joined by top Republican on the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), and the Vice Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, William Timmons (SC-04).\n\nEmmer said, \u201cCFPB Director Chopra\u2019s shadowy, hyper-partisan \u2018fellows program\u2019 flouts the transparency and accountability Americans deserve from their government. We deserve answers on this egregious misuse of taxpayer funding.\u201d\n\nThe letter calls on Director Chopra to provide detailed information regarding the CFPB\u2019s opaque Policy Fellowship program. This request follows revelations that Director Chopra hand-picked several personal associates for the extremely high-paying program, at least one of whom assisted Chopra\u2019s improper power grab to take control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation\u2019s agenda from then-Chair Jelena McWilliams.\n\nRead the full letter to Director Chopra here.\n\nRead key excerpts from the letter:\n\n\u201cDear Mr. Chopra:\n\n\u201cLast year, Acting Director Dave Uejio launched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau\u2019s Policy Fellowship to enhance expertise \u2018on the markets for consumer financial products and services that affect American consumers.\u2019 The Committee has obtained information that raises questions and concerns regarding the adequacy of the fellowship program\u2019s compliance with ethics guidelines, among other things. Moreover, the salaries and job responsibilities for current CFPB Fellows are analogous to those of the Bureau\u2019s senior political and career staff. This creates the appearance that the program is being used as a backdoor to circumvent civil service laws and Executive Branch guidance that prohibit preferential hiring and conflicts of interest.\n\n\u2026\n\n\u201cThe Bureau does not publicly identify or disclose the roster of Fellows, as it does for senior political and career staff. Fellows also appear to be exempt from filing the financial disclosures required for many Presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed positions. As you know, financial disclosures are an essential window into how the federal government is using taxpayer dollars. The disclosures contain information about the personal financial interests of the filer, the filer\u2019s spouse, and any dependent children The only publicly available indicator, in some cases, that a Fellow has any affiliation with the CFPB occurs on the Fellow\u2019s social media channels.\n\n\u201cWe have concerns about the opaqueness of the Policy Fellowship Program, which are borne out by documents and emails that show an individual hired as a Fellow appeared to play a key role in the CFPB\u2019s attempt to co-opt the FDIC\u2019s agenda as it relates to bank mergers. On November 26, 2021, a CFPB Fellow circulated a Notational Voting Sheet and other materials to the FDIC Board of Directors. Two weeks later the Fellow declared \u2018the Board has approved all matters in NV-2021-12.\u2019 As you know, this sham vote was contrary to instructions from the FDIC\u2019s office of general counsel during a dispute about the Board\u2019s bylaws. The fact that a Fellow managed the process by which the CFPB upended the FDIC\u2019s 88-year tradition of considering the Chairman\u2019s agenda on a collegial basis is disturbing. It creates the appearance that some Fellows are exceeding the scope of the program\u2019s stated purpose, at the very least.\n\n\u201cFurthermore, on April 27, 2022, you testified to the Committee that applicants for the Policy Fellowship went through a \u2018competitive process\u2019 and that you \u2018encouraged a lot of people to apply\u2019 and knew \u2018a handful\u2019 of Fellows prior to becoming the Director of the CFPB. That dynamic invites questions as to whether there was favoritism in the selection process, and the opacity of the program leaves taxpayers and supervised entities without easy access to answers. It also is unclear whether Fellows are subject to the CFPB\u2019s guidance \u2018to protect the public trust and detect revolving door misconduct\u2019 which requires staff to report \u2018suspicious communications and activity.\u2019 The guidance directs current employees to file reports with agency ethics officials if they learn a former employee is assisting a party under investigation, among other things.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:29:07Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/emmer-republican-leaders-demand-answers-on-cfpb-s-shady-policy-fellowship-program"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5510190278291702, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}